4. DiscussionMost biotechnological

4. Discussion
Most biotechnological products are proteins that have to be
prepared in large volumes with high degree of purity. While
commercial production of proteins is possible by advances in
genetic engineering, separation and purification techniques for
these products have been slow in development. Conventional
purification methods are tedious, time consuming and
expensive. Affinity precipitation is an alternative to conven-
tional protein purification techniques. It has several advantages
over the other bio-separation strategies for enzymes, being
easily scalable and economically viable. The recovery of active
protein is high and often the method results in a purification
factor of 5–10 (sometimes greater). Further, the process uses
inexpensive and easily obtainable materials thus making it
suitable for scale-up or commercialization.
The main focus of this paper is to increase the specific
activity and stability of
a
-amylase against thermal denatura-
tion. Enzymatic conversion of starch includes its gelatinization
by dissolution in water through heat. Use of thermostable
bacterial amylases for hydrolysis of gelatinized starch has
helped avoid cooling time. Fungal amylase loses 50% residual
activity on heating for 15 min at 54
8
C, and is thus, not as stable
as bacterial amylases. Stabilization of fungal amylase would