An Evaluation of the Clotting Properties of Three Plant Rennets in the Milks of Different Animal Species

Cynara cardunculus, Carica papaya and Ficus carica extracts are proposed as milk coagulants herein. Their coagulation efficiency was measured in bovine, buffalo, goat and sheep milk incubated at different temperatures. The milk-clotting and proteolytic activities as well as the lactodynamographic parameters were determined considering animal rennet as a reference coagulant. The vegetable coagulant, extracted from C. cardunculus pistils, proved to be the most suitable milk-clotting enzyme for cheesemaking, since it possesses similar milk clotting properties to conventional calf rennet. F. carica latex, but seemed to be a promising alternative coagulant at higher temperatures. The strong proteolytic activity of papain caused poor milk coagulation in all milk samples. To conclude, this result also supports the original hypothesis of this study that the excessive proteolytic nature of plant coagulants can negatively affect the cheesemaking process. The optimization of using a plant rennet in a dairy application can be done by selecting the appropriate plant rennet with a consistent clotting efficiency. These innovative manufacturing processes may also lead to the optimization and production of new cheese varieties.