USE OF RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY FOR OPTIMIZATION OF THE EXTRACTION OF ENZYMES FROM PINEAPPLE PULP

Enzymatic reactions are very important for the food industry. They are responsible for the formation of highly desirable compounds, but can cause disorders and lead to undesirable consequences. The physiological behavior of vegetables and fruits is already known, in which most of its deterioration changes in flavour, colour and nutritional value are caused by enzymes of the oxidoreductases group, mainly peroxidases (PER) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO). The degradation of pectic polysaccharides involves two important enzymatic processes whose action is due to pectin methylesterase (PME) and polygalacturonase (PG) enzymes, which affect the consistency and texture of fruit during ripening and postharvest handling. Pineapple is a tropical fruit very appreciated by consumers, but its physical-chemical and biochemical composition varies according to the time and place of production, and stage of maturity. In order to optimize the extraction process of the PER, PPO, PME and PG enzymes from ‘Peróla’ pineapple pulp, response surface methodology was used to study the effect of pH (from 4.0 to 8.0) and NaCl concentration (from 0.0 to 2.0 M) of the buffer solution used in the extraction of the enzymes. The results showed that the best conditions for enzyme extraction were 1.0 M NaCl, pH 6.0 for PER (4752.9 U/g), pH <4.6 for PPO (81.6 U/g) 1.0 M NaCl for PME (7916.6 U/g) and 2.0 M NaCl for PG (0.000034 U/g h^-1). This optimized extraction procedures will be very useful in determining enzymatic activity used as markers in breeding programs of different pineapple cultivars.