Digestive proteases from the stomachless cunner fish (Tautogolabrus adspersus): Preparation and use as food processing aid

Digestive proteases were isolated from the pancreas of the stomachless cunner fish (Tautogolabrus adspersus) and characterized in terms of their physicochemical properties, their ability to hydrolyze native pectin methylesterase (PME) from orange and polyphenol oxidases (PPO) from mushroom and the ability of the cunner enzyme(s) to maintain the stability of orange juice cloud.;The cunner trypsin fraction exhibited exceptional capacity to hydrolyze native proteins versus the bovine trypsin. Incubation of native PME with cunner or bovine trypsin resulted in a loss of 75% or 35% in PME activity respectively. Similarly, a 75% or 55% loss in PPO activity was observed after treatment with cunner and bovine trypsin respectively. Bovine trypsin, however, hydrolyzed the heat-denatured PME and PPO better than the cunner trypsin. Also, there was no reactivation of both PME and PPO activity after treatment with either the cunner or bovine enzyme during storage at 4;A 3 x 3 factorial design involving the factors of temperature, enzyme concentration and incubation time carried out gave an r...