Lever Brothers Company

Lever Brothers Company, Division of Conopco, Inc.

David Thom

Ton Swarthoff

Jan Maat

Jan Klugkist

Cornelis A Lagerwaard

Johannes M Cornelissen

Swarthoff Ton

The invention relates to a detergent composition comprising lipases. By inclusion of a certain immunologically defined class of lipases in a detergent composition which comprises as detergent-active material solely an anionic synthetic detergent, and as builder a water-soluble inorganic or organic builder salt, an improved overall detergency is obtained. The builder salt is typically sodium tripolyphosphate or sodium carbonate, and the lipase is typically obtained from certain Pseudomonas or Chromobacter strains.

Enzymatic detergent composition

An enzymatic detergent and bleaching composition contains a bleaching system which is stronger than the sodium perborate/TAED system. In such a composition a lipase is employed which is produced by cloning, by rDNA technique, the gene which encodes the lipase produced by the fungas Humicola lanuginosa and expressing that gene in Aspergillus oryzae as host. The lipase is used in an amount giving a lipolytic enzyme activity of from 100 to 0.005 lipolytic units/mg of the composition.

Enzymatic detergent and bleaching composition containing a specific rDNA

The invention relates to a detergent composition comprising lipases. By inclusion of a certain, immunologically defined class of lipases in a detergent composition which comprises a mixture of an anionic and a nonionic detergent, an improved overall detergency is obtained. Typical suitable lipases are obtained from certain Pseudomonas and Chromobacter strains.

The invention relates to the use of a certain class of lipases together with strong bleaching agents in detergent compositions. This class of lipases consists of fungal lipases ex Humicola lanuginosa or Thermomyces lanuginosus, and bacterial lipases which show a positive immunological cross-reaction with the antibody of the lipase produced by Chromobacter viscosum var. lipolyticum NRRL B-3673. The strong bleaching agents are stronger than the sodium perborate/TAED system, i.e. stronger than peracetic acid or they yield, on perhydrolysis, a peracid faster than the sodium perborate/TAED system.

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Parkgate, United Kingdom

David Thom