Extraction, Partial Purification and Characterization of Bromelain from Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) Crown, Core and Peel Waste

Abstract Ananas Comosus (also known as pineapple) is a part of Bromeliaceae family and it is consumed as food as well as folk medicine for the treatment of various diseases. It is reported that pineapple is a rich source of bromelain, a cysteine protease and it is considered as an important enzyme in different industries due to its significant therapeutic and industrial applications such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory and meat tenderizing. Bromelain is mostly present in fruit and stem of pineapple, but it is reported that crown, core, and peels, which constitute the waste of the pineapple plant, also contain bromelain but limited data is available. Therefore, the proposed study aimed at utilizing pineapple waste for the extraction and characterization of bromelain. Firstly, crude bromelain was extracted with phosphate buffer (pH 7), then it was subjected to partial purification using different fractions of ammonium sulphate (NH4)2SO4 such as 30, 40, 50 and 60% followed by desalting and concentration. Enzyme activity was calculated by using casein digesting unit (CDU) method. The results demonstrated that the crown bromelain showed highest purification of 4.34-fold at 30% (NH4)2SO4 saturation, whereas core and peel bromelain showed highest purification of 2.75 and 2.59-fold at 40% (NH4)2SO4 saturation. The molecular weight of crude and partially purified bromelain was determined by SDS-PAGE analysis and found to be 26 KDa. The pH and thermal stability of all the parts of pineapple showed maximum stability at pH 7 and at 35oC temperature.

Ocorrência da bromelina em espécies e cultivares de abacaxizeiro / Occurrence of bromelain in species and cultivars of pineaple plants

Neste trabalho procurou-se caracterizar cultivares de abacaxizeiro pertencentes à coleçäo do Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (IAC) - Säo Paulo, quanto ao teor de bromelina, devido à sua importância para a indústria de alimentos e ao pouco conhecimento acerca de sua atividade nas espécies cultivares de abacaxizeiro. Foram selecionados 16 amostras de diferentes cultivares e dentre essas, a espécie Ananás vermelho-do-mato (Ananas bracteatus, var. typicus). Foi a que se mostrou mais promissora como fonte de bromelina, e o cultivar Roxo-de-tefé (Ananas comosus) praticamente näo apresentou atividade proteolítica, fato este até entäo näo documentado na literatura. Os valores obtidos para a atividade proteolítica variaram de 216,1 a 6617,6 unidades/100g talo