Quantity and quality of bromelain in some Indonesian pineapple fruits.

ABSTRACT

This research aimed to extract bromelain from all parts of some variant of Indonesian pineapple fruits in order to evaluate their amount and characteristics as well. Each part of pineapple (crown, flesh, core, and peel) was separately blended with sodium phosphate buffer 0.01 M pH 7.0 at ratio of 11 (w/v) then filtered using cheese cloth. The filtrate was centrifuged at 1250 g for 10 minutes. The supernatant was collected and then centrifuged at 10000 g for 15 minutes. All extracts from each stage (blended mixture, pulp, filtrate, supernatant 1, pellet 1, supernatant 2, and pellet 2) were collected and characterized. The concentration of protein was measured by using BSA as standard and the proteolytic activity was determined using casein 1% (w/v) as substrate under the standard conditions (37 oC, pH 8.00, 10 min). The optimum temperature (ranged 27-80°C) and pH (ranged 3-10) was also evaluated. The result showed that three stepwise extraction process (blending with buffer – filtration – centrifugation) could be applied to obtain bromelain from all parts of pineapple, but some amount of bromelain was still left in the residue. Due to its price and weight, Subang pineapple was the most potential Indonesian pineapple as the source of bromelain. The maximum protein content and bromelain activity in one of Subang pineapple were 236.29 mg and 787.92 unit, respectively, while those in Bogor and Palembang pineapples were 168.27-190.10 mg and 464.97-510.37 unit, respectively.