Enzymes Application
• Enzymes are applied to many fields of people’s
daily life
• Added or used to cause particular reaction
▫ Advantages
Natural, Nontoxic
Catalyze specific reactions
Active under mild conditions
Active at low concentrations
Can control rate of reaction
Can be inactivated
Enzymes
• Most proficient catalysts with high specificity
• Competitive and cost-effective processes
• Cleaning (Detergents)
• Textiles Use for biosciences
• Starch Processing • DNA polymerase: Thermostability, fidelity
• Brewing
• Leather • Restriction enzymes: Specificity
• Baking • Alkaline phosphatase
• Pulp and Paper • Peroxidase
• Food and Specialties
• Animal feeds Industrial use for specialty chemicals
• Cosmetics
• Organic acids
• Chiral drugs
• Chiral intermediates
• Semi-synthetic antibiotics
Therapeutics
• Treatment of Gaucher’s disease
Industrial Enzymes and Their
Commercial Uses
Enzyme applications: Detergents
• Bacterial proteinases are still the most
important detergent enzymes. Some products have
been genetically engineered to be more stable in
the hostile environment of washing machines with
several different chemicals present.
• Lipid degrading enzymes, lipase, were used in
powder and liquid detergents to decompose fats.
• Amylases are used in detergents to remove
starch based stains.
Enzyme applications: Detergents
• Cellulases have been part of detergents since
early 90s.
▫ An enzyme complex capable of degrading
crystalline cellulose to glucose.
Enzyme applications: Drink industry
• The use of chymosin in cheese making to
coagulate milk protein.
• Beta-galactosidase (lactase)
▫ Splits milk-sugar lactose into glucose and galactose is
also used in milk industry.
▫ This process is used for milk products that are
consumed by lactose intolerant consumers.
Enzyme applications: Drink industry
• Fruit juice manufacturing:
▫ Pectins are substances in fruit lamella and cell walls
which contain also hemicelluloses and cellulose.
▫ Pectinase, xylanase and cellulase improve the
liberation of the juice from the pulp.
▫ Pectinases and amylases are used in juice clarification.
• Wine production: Enzymes are widely used to
obtain a better extraction of the necessary
components and thus improving the yield.
Enzyme applications: Textiles
• The use of enzymes in textile industry is one of the
most rapidly growing fields in industrial enzymology.
• Starch has for a long time been used as a protective
glue of fibers in weaving of fabrics. This is called
sizing.
• Enzymes are used to remove the starch in a process
called desizing.
▫ Amylases are used in this process since they do not
harm the textile fibers
Enzyme applications: Textiles
▫ Laccase – a polyphenol oxidase from fungi is used
to degrade lignin the aromatic polymer found in all
plant materials .
▫ Cellulases remove cellulose microfibrils, which
are formed during washing.
Enzyme applications: Animal
Feed
• The net effect of enzyme usage in feed has been
increased animal weight.
• The first commercial success was addition of beta-
glucanase into barley based feed diets.
▫ Barley contains beta-glucan, which causes high viscosity
in the chicken gut.
• In addition to poultry, enzymes are used in pig feeds
and turkey feeds.
Enzyme applications: Backing
• Alpha-amylases have been most widely studied in
connection with improved bread quality and
increased shelf life.
• Both fungal and bacterial amylases are used in bread
making and excess may lead to sticky dough.
Enzyme applications: Pulp and
paper
• The major application is the use of
xylanases in pulp bleaching for paper.
Enzyme applications: Leather
• Leather industry uses proteolytic and lipolytic
enzymes in leather processing.
• Enzymes are used to remove animal skin, hair,
and any unwanted parts.
• Lipases are used in this phase or in bating
phase to specifically remove grease.
Enzyme applications: Bioethanol- a
biofuel
• Bioethanol is a biofuel used in cars.
• It can be produced from starchy plant materials.
• Enzymes are used to convert starch to bioethanol
• At present, corn is a widely used source of starch.
Other plants including wheat, bamboo, or other
grasses can be used as sources of starch for
bioethanol production.
Enzyme applications: Medicine
• As drugs for treatment of diseases
• In diagnosis
• In preparation of medicines
• To remove toxic substances
• Making lactose free products for patients suffering
from lactose intolerance (lactase breaks lactose to
glucose and galactose)
Some important therapeutic
enzymes
Enzyme Use
Asparaginase For leukaemia
Collagenase For Skin ulcers
Glutaminase For Leukaemia
Hyaluronidase For Heart attack
Lysozyme For Infection
Ribonuclease As Antiviral
β-Lactamase For Penicillin allergy
Streptokinase For dissolving Blood clots
Trypsin For Inflammation
Uricase For Gout
Urokinase For dissolving Blood clots
Enzymes required for molecular biology
techniques (genetic engineering)
• DNA polymerases
• DNA ligases
• Dnases
• Rnases
• RNA polymerases
• Reverse transcriptase
• others
