ABSTRACT
The enzyme industry is rapidly growing in size, complexity, and diversity due to high demand of specific enzymes, including saccharases, proteases, and lipases. Among these important enzymes, microbial lipases have shown diverse applications in food, textile, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and bioprocessing industries. Microbial lipases have the potential to hydrolyze ester bonds and catalyze various processes, such as esterification, transesterification, interesterification, acidolysis, alcoholysis, and aminolysis. This chapter provides a historical overview of lipases followed by its production from bacteria, fungi, and yeast, and its purification and subsequent applications in the industrial production of value-added products.
