Glucosinolates can be hydrolyzed by the enzyme commonly known as myrosinase (E.C. 3.2.1.147)to a variety of biological compounds. Myrosinase (MYR)has been immobilized through the flexible spacers of different length on cross-linked chitosan resin (CCR). Ethylene diamine, hexamethylenediamine and decamethylene-diamine have been separately used as spacers. The influence of the flexible spacer length on the immobilized MYR (IMYR)properties were evaluated. The optimum pH and V max of IMYR linearly increase with the flexible spacer length, and the optimum temperature and K m of IMYR show an opposite trend. The recyclability of IMYR was good, with 90% recovery of activity after 10 cycles and 80% recovery after 30 cycles. IMYR was highly stable under storage conditions, with 95% recovery of activity after one year storage at 4 °C. The IMYR with the longest flexible spacer, decamethylene-diamine, was used as a biocatalyst for sulforaphene production. The overall hydrolysis ratio of glucoraphenin was 93.25 ± 0.91% and the activity of DDMCCR-IMYR remained 95% after 10 days of continuous use. @en

Hypericin is considered to be the most biologically active substance in the crude extract of Hypericum perforatum L. (also known as St. John's wort) and has a wide range of pharmacological effects. In this study, a high resolution high performance liquid chromatography method for determining hypericin was established by comparing different chromatographic conditions. Xylanase-assisted extraction and microwave-assisted extraction can improve the extraction yield of hypericin significantly. And the coupling strategy between two methods resulted in a significant difference on the extraction yield. Microwave-assisted extraction after xylanase-assisted extraction was found to be the most efficient strategy for extracting hypericin. The yield was 0.319 ± 0.006 mg g −1 , which was a 209.7% increase over unassisted extraction. The combination of enzyme assisted extraction followed by microwave assisted extraction can be more commonly applied to improve extraction efficiency of bioactive compounds from plants. @en