Application of enzymes

Applications of enzymes;

Enzymes are naturally occurring catalyst known as biological catalyst obtained by living organisms. Enzymes are present in almost all part of the body where they perform many biochemical reactions .We can say that there is no cell or tissue in the body which is devoid of enzymes.The enzyme can facilitate many reactions only in the suitable condition like optimal temperature, pH, the concentration of substrate etc .the reaction of enzymes can be performed within the cytoplasm, nucleus or even outside the cell. Nowadays due to the advanced technologies and advance knowledge these enzymes are isolated from the others living organisms for the human beneficial by various methods. Most of the enzymes are extracted from animals,plants, and microorganisms.but among them, microbial enzymes are preferred predominantly. Enzymes should be nontoxic,nonpathogenic and do not produce excess byproducts. Due to the rapid growth of populations and huge demand enzymes are also manufactured by the principle of recombinant DNA technology. Enzymes can be used in the various application or due to its possible applications they are produced industrially . Enzymes have wide range of applications that include their use in food production,food processing ,food preservation,textile manufacture, leather industry, medicine,paper industries and in environment and scientific research thus field of application may be summarized under the following points:

A) Application of enzymes in medical field:

Medical application of enzymes is as extensive as in industry . Some of the applications are described below:

1) In the treatment of disorders;

In some disordered like low blood pressure ,head injuries, there is some possibilities of clotting of blood or formation of blood clots.The formation of these blood clots may create obstacles in the flow of blood and the blood can not reach to its target organs.These type of disorder may lead to brain and heart attack which ultimately cause death to the man due to the lack of constant supply of oxygen and energy.The only one way to overcome this problem is to dissolve the clots. These clots are only dissolved by the enzymes that can break them.Enzymes like Streptokinase,Urokinase.

Another problem caused by the hardening and thickening of blood vessel walls the same problem arises which lead to heart problem if it is not well treated. The best way to overcome this problem is to decrease the fat intake and dissolve the formed thickness. Enzymes like Serratiopeptidase is the best example of this kind of enzyme.

In the swelling of a wound ,formation of pus enzymes like trypsin,chymotrypsin,serratiopeptidase is used to dissolve the swelling.

2) Enzymes used to assist metabolism:

A patient suffering from gastritis and people of old age has low digestive capacity due to insufficient secretion of digestive enzymes.So due to this reason they can not digest the food properly and disease like malnutrition,constipation,bloating etc may cause.To control the digestion enzymes like Papain are administered orally after food which may make easy food easy to digest and make the digestive system fit and perfect.

3) Enzymes used to assist drug delivery:

In the case of drug delivery ,some drugs need to penetrate deeper tissue to work better ,for this reason, some enzymes like Hyaluronidase are used along with drugs in intra-muscular injection forms to proper penetration of tissues.This enzyme is present in the human sperm to help sperm penetrate uterine tissue to fertilized with ova.

4) Enzymes to diagnose disorders:Enzymes secreted by liver ,kidney,heart etc leak into blood during related disorders .Measuring the level of enzymes present in blood indicates the specific disorder.

5) Used in manufacture of medicines:

There are enzymes that convert the prodrugs molecules to drugs or starting material to drugs. For example, steroidal drugs are manufactured by enzyme action on plant steroids,

some important enzymes with their therapeutic applications are given below:

B) Application of enzymes in food industries:

In food industries, many enzymes play the vital role in the processing of carbohydrates,fats,lipids,proteins etc.Some enzymes are given below:

• Amylase ,lactase,cellulase are used to break complex sugars into the simpler form. They are mainly used to break starch,cellulose into simpler sugars like glucose.
• Pectinase enzymes are used in fruit juice manufactured .pectinase break pectin to juice less viscous.
• Lipase breaks lipids to give fatty acids and glycerol,which is mostly used in baking industry.Fatty acids and glycerol are also greatly used in the production of soaps and detergents:

The industrial application of enzymes can be summarized in the following table:

The other industrial application and their sources are given below:

C) Analytical application of enzymes:

Enzymes are used for the end point and kinetic analysis. The endpoint is the total conversion of substrate into the products in the presence of enzymes . Enzymes are also used in antigen-antibody reactions biochemical tests etc. The enzymes used for the analytical purpose include alkaline phosphatase ,Beta- galactosidase,horse radish peroxidase etc.

D) Manipulating applications of enzymes:

Enzymes used in genetic engineeringhave manipulating functions and they are used as biological tools. The enzymes for this type include nuclease, DNA ligase, DNA polymerase and other.

There is much more application of enzymes in different field like; cosmetics, technical field like paper ,pulp ,soaps and detergents ,nutrition and feed stocks etc. So the field of application of enzymes is large.