Extraction and Purification of Bromelain Enzyme from Fruits and its Therapeutic Application Study

Food processing industries release a lot of fruit wastes mainly of seed, skin, rind, pomace, crown etc. containing potential bioactive compounds. Bromelain is a crude protein extracted from certain fruits. Bromelain is a sub-type of cysteine protease enzyme extensively investigated for its therapeutic properties such as anti-microbial and anti-oxidant activity with good ferric reducing power. The present study deals with isolating and purifying bromelain from kiwi and avocado fruits and assessing their therapeutic application. Fruit samples were taken from a juice shop in VIT, Vellore, for performing all the experimental analysis. Different parts such as stem, pulp, peel and leaves of the avocado and kiwi fruits were collected for the bromelain extraction process. The extraction of protein was done by the ammonium sulfate precipitation method. Estimation of protein content was performed and the concentration of crude enzyme was found to be 970μg/ml and 900μg/ml for avocado peel and kiwi pulp respectively. Avocado peel showed good activity in ferric reducing power and also a potent radical scavenging activity of 40% at 200μg concentration. Crude bromelain extracted from both fruits showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Hence it can be concluded that bromelain can be used as an effective health supplement.