A PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF PREBIOTIC AND HEALTH FUNCTIONAL BIOMOLECULES FROM FULLY OR PARTIALLY PROCESSED PRODUCTS OR BY-PRODUCTS OF SUGAR AND DAIRY INDUSTRIES, AND USES OF THE SAME
The present invention refers to a novel process involving fully or partially processed product or by-product of sugar industry, such as, jaggery, table sugar and cane molasses, and milk processing by-products, such as, whey, and the microbial cells hosting catalytic proteins with dextransucrase, D-psicose 3-epimerase, -D-galactosidase, and L-arabinose isomerase activities or partially or cell free enzyme preparations as the key ingredients to produce prebiotic tri- or disaccharides and functional monosaccharide sugars. In particular, the invention relates to bioprocessing of cane molasses and whey or table sugar and whey or jaggery and whey into prebiotic 2-a-D-glucopyranosyl-lactose or kojibiose, and rare sugars such as D-psicose and D-tagatose by employing microbial cells expressing proteins with dextransucrase, D-psicose 3-epimerase, -D-galactosidase, and L-arabinose isomerase catalytic activities or enzymes extracted therefrom. The invention discloses a route of biotransformation of fully or partially processed product or by- product of cane sugar and dairy industries into a preparation of prebiotic tri- or disaccharides (e.g. 2-a-D-glucopyranosyl-lactose and kojibiose) and functional monosaccharides (e.g. D-psicose and D-tagatose) in any state of purity from the preparation.
