Sri Priatni

The Comparative Study of Papain Enzyme from Papaya Fruits California variant and Indonesian Local variant

Papain (E.C.3.4.22.2) is a proteolytic enzyme which has important role due to its diverse uses in textile, pharmaceutics, cosmetics and food industries. Papain enzyme can be found in almost all parts of the papaya plant and most of the stem and fruit. The objective of this study is to compare the California var. and Indonesian local var. of papaya fruits, in papain production and also to characterize the enzyme properties. Results showed that the highest yield of crude papain was obtained from local papaya latex (24.87%) which precipitated by ethanol with ratio of 1:2. The highest of activity enzyme, soluble protein and specific enzyme activity obtained from the local papaya were 3154 ± 11.31unit/mL, solubility protein of 0.94± 0.08 mg/mL and spesific enzyme activity of 3355.32 unit/mg protein, respectively. The activity of enzyme fraction F7 obtained from purification by DEAE sepharose column was 202.33 U/mL dan the molecular weight of this fraction was between 17- 28 kDa.