What Are Plant Enzymes and Their Applications?
Metabolism is the most fundamental feature of life. Whether it is the metabolism of substances or energy, the millions of chemical reactions that make them up are almost always catalyzed by enzymes. Enzymes catalyze biochemical reactions such as proteins, sugars, and fats to produce energy. Enzymes, especially plant enzymes, are widely used in daily life and industrial production. Please continue reading below to learn more about what are plant enzymes and their applications.
What Are Plant Enzymes?
Plant enzymes have been the best sellers of enzyme products. Early enzymes were isolated from living cells, among which the plant enzymes are extracted from the roots, fruits, and peels of plants. Plant-derived enzymes usually include amylase, invertase, papain, bromelain, lipoxygenase, etc.
In living organisms, plant enzymes play a very important role in promoting metabolism and controlling the activity of cells in the body. Hence, they are the raw materials of many health products. Plant enzymes are also widely used in the chemical industry because of their efficient catalytic effect.
The bromelain is one of the most popular and widely used plant enzymes; here are some applications.
Wide Applications of Bromelain
The main source of the bromelain is pineapple plants, including pineapples stems and fruits, and it belongs to a sulfhydryl protease. The main active principle of bromelain is to hydrolyze polypeptides to the low molecular weight of peptides. It also has the effect of hydrolyzing amide bonds and esters. Therefore, it is used in three main applications.
Food Processing Industry
- Baking Food
Adding bromelain to the raw dough can degrade gluten for easy processing and improve the taste and quality of cookies and bread.
- Curdling of Cheese
It can be used for curdling of casein.
- Meat Tenderizing
Same as papain, bromelain is sold in powder form as a meat tenderizer and can be widely used to finish meat products.
- Other Food Processing Industries
It is used to make soluble protein products such as breakfast containing soy flour, cereal food, and beverage.
Pharmaceutical and Health Care Field
- Treatment of Local Burns
It has been proven that bromelain can help remove dead skin cells in third-degree burns and assist in the healing of first and second-degree burns.
- Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases
Bromelain is beneficial as a proteolytic enzyme for preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases. It helps promote healthy blood flow by reducing platelet aggregation and decreasing the chance of clot formation in blood vessels. This may reduce the risk of developing atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases.
- Sinusitis Relief
Bromelain is a supplement used to relieve the symptoms of sinusitis. When combined with quercetin, it may help reduce sinusitis, while quercetin acts as an antihistamine.
- Anti-inflammatory Effect
Bromelain effectively treats inflammation and edema in a variety of tissues, including thrombophlebitis, skeletal muscle injuries, hematomas, stomatitis, diabetic ulcers, and sports injuries.
- Improve Drug Absorption
Bromelain can be used in combination with various antibiotics to improve their efficacy. For example, the study showed that it could promote the transmission of antibiotics at the site of infection, thus reducing the number of antibiotics used. In addition, pineapple protease can promote the absorption of nutrients.
Beauty Industry
Bromelain is used in whitening and exfoliating cosmetics and mouthwashes, and other daily chemical products.
How To Choose The Plant Enzymes?
In addition to bromelain, papain is another plant enzyme with a high economic value. However, no matter which plant enzyme is purchased, the buyer should try to purchase from a reliable and competent manufacturer. Formal production ensures that the quality of the purchased product is more guaranteed. And Initial Naturals is one such trusted botanical extract manufacturer.
About Initial Naturals
We are committed to becoming a world-renowned one-stop supplier of natural ingredients for nutraceuticals. We have the professional team and equipment to produce a range of ingredients, including botanical, nutraceutical, amino acid, vitamins, probiotics, etc. Our factory has been certified by ISO22000 and ISO9001. The products from Initial Naturals have consistent quality and competitive prices. Contact us to start looking for the products you need!