High Retention and Purification of Bromelain Enzyme (Ananas comosus L. Merrill) from Pineapple Juice Using Plain and Hollow Polymeric Membranes Techniques

The demand for bromelian and pineapple fruit has been increasing substantially in the world because of their benefits for the human health and use in diverse areas. In this context, this work aimed to study the capacity of higher retention (concentration); bromelain activity underwent ultrafiltration from pineapple juice (Ananas comusus L. Merrill). All assays were carried out at pH 7.0 and 7.5, and at 0.05 and 0.40 bar of transmembrane pressures. Results have shown that at the best operating conditions, between 85 and 87% of bromelain activity was recovered using the plain membrane separation process at 0.05 bar. The ultrafiltration has shown the capacity to retain 100% of proteolytic activity of the bromelain extracted. The samples have kept the same physics properties after ultrafiltration, and the result was verified via electrophoresis. The bromelain enzyme obtained was characterized, and pH 7 and between 30 and 40 °C were the best conditions. Therefore, this work shows that the use of both polymeric membranes has shown high efficiency, and can be used in the purification of bromelain enzymes.