Enzymes are proteins that act as biocatalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The industrial application of enzymes can be classified into several areas.
- Food and Beverage Industry
- Pharmaceutical Industry
- Medical Applications
- Analytical Purposes
- Textile and Detergent Industry
Application of Enzymes in the Food and Beverage Industry
The most classical application of enzymes in the food industry is making cheese using rennet. Rennet is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals.
α-Ameylase and proteases are used in the baking industry to convert starch into dextrin and sugars. They also help in the hydrolysis of gluten.
Pectolytic enzyme (Pectional, Mylese) is used to clarify fruit juice and wine, this treatment removes haze from it.
Some of the fruit pulps like bananas or guava need pectolytic enzyme treatment. This treatment breaks pectin to release the free-flowing fruit juice from fibrous material. This process is known as clarification of fruit juices for making RTS (Ready to Serve).
Amylase is used for brewing beer.
Papain enzyme (extracted from the latex of raw papaya fruits) is used for chill-proofing beer (removal of haze or cloudiness).
Pectolytic enzymes (papain or bromeline) are used for tenderization of meat (for improving the texture of meat).
In the confectionery industry, manufacturers use the invertase enzyme. It inverts sucrose into a mixture of glucose and fructose. This helps in avoiding the problem of crystallization of sucrose.
Immobilized glucose isomerase enzyme is used for the conversion of glucose to fructose (1.7 times sweeter than glucose), used in soft drinks as a sweetener.
Lactase enzyme is used for hydrolysis of lactose found in skim milk and whey. This step will allow the use of lactose products in making ice creams. It prevents possible crystallization of lactose during the cooling process.
Liquid glucose and corn syrup are made industrially by hydrolysis of starch. Starch is first solubilized and hydrolyzed using amylo glucosidase.
Liquid glucose because of its high consistency and viscosity is extensively used in confectionery industries.
Application of Enzymes in Pharmaceutical Industry and Medical
Enzymes are used in medical diagnosis, therapy, and treatment purposes.
Chirally- pure compounds from the isomers in racemic mixtures are the need of the hour in the pharma industry. Enzymes can recognize the chiral isomers. They react with them selectively. This ability is exhibited in the pharmaceutical industry.
In the antibiotic industry, Penicillin acylase is used for the conversion of penicillin-G to 6-amino penicillinic acid (6-APA). This is a precursor for making a wide variety of Penicillin derivatives.
Enzymes in immobilized form find use in biosensors. Biosensors are instruments used to sense some e biological materials (substrate or product) either qualitatively quantitatively or both. Generally, there used for qualitative analysis. Enzymes like glucose oxidase are used in bio-sensor membranes to sense glucose. Urease is used to sense urea.
Analytical Purposes
The activity of certain enzymes is a measure of the degree of sterility the material has attained. For example, in pasteurizing milk, alkaline phosphatase and invertase activities should be absent. This indicates the degree of pasteurization the milk has attained by heating.
A high amount of α-amylase present in wheat flour indicates germination. This means the wheat grains have spoiled due to long storage. The estimation of α-amylase in the wheat flour helps to know whether it can be used for baking.
The freshness of the meat can be measured by the presence of amines which are formed dew to degradation.
Application Enzymes in the Textile and Detergent Industry
Another important industrial application of enzymes is their utilization in washing powders.
Bacteria proteases have been incorporated into washing powders, and have been available for several years. Subsequently, fears about the possible effect of enzyme dust on the respiratory system had greatly uninformed the commercial importance.
The enzyme-incorporated washing powders have become more popular for the removal of blood and other protein stains which was made possible by using subtilisins from Bacillus subtilis mutants which are stable to alkali, high-temperature detergents, and bleaches
Summary
Industrial application of enzymes range from improving food processing methods to aiding in medical diagnostics. Enzymes are crucial in various industries. They include medicines, food and beverage, and analytical testing. Enzymes improve process efficiency and specificity. The ongoing investigation of enzyme applications holds promise for future breakthroughs and enhancements to various industrial processes as technology develops.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme
- Bioprocess Engineering: Basic concepts, 2nd Edition, by Michael L Shuler & Fikret Kargi, PHI,New Delhi.
- Introduction to Biochemical Engineering by D. G. Rao, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2005.
- Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals by James Bailey & David F Oillis, Second Edition, McGraw Hill Publications.
- Principles of Fermentation Technology, by Whitaker, Peter F Stanbury, S. Hall and A. Whitaker, Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2nd edition
- Biochemical Engineering, Harvey W Blanch and Douglas S Clark, CRC Press
