It has recently been suggested that the active site histidine residue in papain and stem-bromelain have pK, values of 6.7 and 6.4 respectively and since these enzymes are essentially pH-independent for substrate hydrolysis at these pH values, histidine is not directly involved in their catalytic mechanism [l-3] This conclusion is based on photo-oxidation experiments during which the active site...

feeding. It must be stressed that the patient, if turned down for PN, would receive input from the NST on appropriate nutritional management and be reviewed for a few days after the initial referral in case any complications arose. The nutrition nurse specialist was funded from the Trust on a permanent basis and 0.3 whole time equivalent of a dietition was seconded to the team for help on daily...

Given the importance of protease's worldwide market, the determination of optimum conditions and the development of a standard protocol are critical during selection of a reliable method to determine its bioactivity. This paper uses quality control theory to validate a modified version of a method proposed by Charney and Tomarelli in 1947. The results obtained showed that using azocasein substr...

A Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging (SPRI) sensor based on bromelain or chymopapain or ficin has been developed for specific cystatin determination. Cystatin was captured from a solution by immobilized bromelain or chymopapain or ficin due to the formation of an enzyme-inhibitor complex on the biosensor surface. The influence of bromelain, chymopapain or ficin concentration, as well as the pH o...

After preliminary assays, with papain, bromelain and ficin, on a range of citrulline p-nitroanilides, values of Km and kcat. for the papain-catalysed hydrolysis of three derivatives, N alpha- benzyloxycarbonylcitrulline p-nitroanilide, benzyloxycarbonylphenylalanylcitrulline p-nitroanilide and benzyloxycarbonylglycylphenylalanylcitrulline p-nitroanilide, were obtained. It is concluded that benz...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the immediate improvement rate of irritative cough in patients treated with the combination of Ananas comosus extract and honey (Bromelin®) compared with the use of honey alone (placebo group). METHODS Pragmatic, double-blind, randomized, parallel-group study with children aged between 2 and 15 years, with irritative cough for at least 24hours. The double-blind assessmen...

In the course of our researches on the preventive action of stem bromelain (BRM), a protease obtained from pine apple plant, against the adrenaline induced pulmonary edema in rats, it was noticed that a pretreatment with this enzyme also inhibited the occur rence of the circulatory and respiratory changes caused by adrenaline which were remark able in the nontreated animals (1). This suggested ...

The post-coital test evaluates the penetration of spermatozoa into cervical mucus; it relies on subjective measurements and therefore lacks precision. Enzymatic liquefaction of cervical mucus allows sperm concentration to be measured in post-coital test samples, but the reliability of such measurements is not known. Donor cervical mucus was used as a model to test the accuracy and sensitivity o...

The protease inhibitive assay for heavy metals is a novel and robust detection method suitable for preliminary screening method for detecting heavy metals in agriculture and environment samples. Stem bromelain has been previously showed to be sensitive towards mercury and copper. However, commercial preparation is in crude form and contains possible interfering entities. Using ion exchange and ...