Abstract

Microbial lipases enzymes are the most widely used class of enzyme that has broad functions in industries such as textiles industry, detergent, food industry, medical and diagnosis field, cosmetics, biodegrading paper industries and biodiesel production. Microbial lipases breakdown triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol subunits. They are very substrate specific and have an ability to perform function at high temperature and pH. There are also microbial lipases which are solvent tolerant. Although microbial lipases can be produced by both plants and animals, microbes are preferred because they are easy to cultivate and maintain and it is easy to purify enzyme from these microbes instead of complex cells of eukaryotes. The properties of these enzymes have been continuously developed by manipulating the cells by modifying culture conditions and by improving the enzyme activity by various mechanical and chemical immobilization techniques and their function are being broadened. In this review article, it has been attempted to study the recent trends in production, purification and the potential applications of enzyme along with the recent advances.