BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM HORSERADISH FOR BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is a root vegetable that belongs to the botanical family Brassicaceae and due to the high content of bioactive compounds, it has of great interest in many biotechnological fields. The high content of polyphenols, phenols, flavonoids, vitamin C and detoxification enzymes makes horseradish to have a great antioxidant potential and positive effects on the health, being used from ancient times as medicinal plant. The abundance of minerals, vitamins and dietary fibre make horseradish worth to be considered as a natural functional food with a high energy value. In addition to all these biologically active compounds with specific properties for the pharmaceutical and food industry, peroxidase from horseradish (HRP) is known as a green biocatalyst for degradation of wastewater containing phenol. For economical efficient biocatalysts processes, and for a better stability of HRP in the harsh conditions of phenol degradation, immobilized enzymes are frequently used. All the immobilization methods have proven to be effective for HRP, starting to binding methods (physical adsorption, covalent binding), crosslinking, encapsulation and entrapment in porous biomaterials. The immobilized enzymatic preparations showed high specificity and selectivity and very good efficiency in removing the hazardous substants. HRP in immobilized form was also used to develop smart biosensors for detection of pollutants from wastewaters resulted from industrial processes.