Abstract
BACKGROUND: A reverse micellar system (RMS) of ionic surfactants is used for the first time for the extraction and primary purification of fruit bromelain (EC 3.4.22.33) from the aqueous extract of pineapple (Ananas comosus L. Merryl). The effect of various process parameters on both forward and back extraction of bromelain is studied to improve the extraction efficiency of RMS. Most of the reverse micellar extraction (RME) studies reported so far are on model systems and its application to enzyme extraction from a natural source is rarely reported.
RESULTS: Studies carried out with ionic surfactants sodium bis(2‐ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) confirmed that electrostatic interaction was the main driving force for the extraction of fruit bromelain. Among the two surfactants studied, CTAB was found to be the most suitable for the extraction of fruit bromelain with respect to activity recovery (97.56%) and degree of purification (4.54 fold) when employed as a 150 mmol L^−1^ CTAB/iso‐octane/5% (v/v) hexanol/15% (v/v) butanol system. Activity recovery with a counterionic system is higher (94.30%) in comparison with isopropyl alcohol added system (85.35%).
CONCLUSION: RME could be used as an efficient primary purification step for the recovery of bromelain from pineapple juice. Reverse micellar phase components can easily be recovered and efficiently reused for fresh or subsequent extraction, which contributes favorably to the process economics and environmental issues. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry