Optimization of Bromelain extraction from pineapple by-products through natural polymer complex formation

Abstract

The isolation and purification of by-products are very important processes in the biotechnology industry, representing 80–90% of total production costs. Furthermore, the development of simple and viable methods for protein purification has been an essential prerequisite for many advances in biotechnology (Hari Krishna and Karanth 2002). Bromelain (BR) is a crude, aqueous extract from the stems and immature fruits of pineapples (Ananas comosus) and can be found in the tissue of plants of the Bromeliaceae family and belongs to cysteine-proteinases family (Rowan and Buttle 1994). Several processes of extraction were developed, but all with some disadvantage (high cost, low purity, high use of chemical products). Two types of BR were described, from stem (EC. 3.4.22.32) and from fruit (EC. 3.4.22.33), previously called bromelin (Cooreman 1978). These group of enzymes offer a wide spectrum of therapeutic efficacies: they demonstrate, in vitro and in vivo, antiedemateous, antiinflammatory, antithrombotic and fibrinolytic activities (Maurer 2001), increasing the importance of determining a viable extraction and purification method for this enzyme. A new method of purification and isolation of BR was developed, using a natural food safe polysaccharide (carrageenan). Carrageenan (Carr) is derived from certain species of red seaweeds (Rhodophyceae) and shows a wide range of rheological and functional properties. Previous reports have demonstrated the use of this polysaccharide to isolate and immobilize enzymes (Fabian, Huynh et al. 2010).