PURIFICATION AND DRYING OF BROMELAIN EXTRACTED FROM ANANAS COMOSUS

The potential therapeutic value of bromelain is due to its biochemical and pharmacological properties and hence, it is desired to obtain bromelain in its highest purified form. Crude bromelain extract can be obtained from the fruit of Ananas comosus using ion exchange chromatography. Bromelain thus obtained can be subjected to either spray or freeze drying. The resulting residual activity and the specific activity were compared between the spray and freeze dried powders. Freeze dried bromelain was found to posses the specific activity twice as compared to the spray dried powder. The effect of protective agents and the bulking agents on the retention of activity was studied in both spray as well as freeze drying. The initial results have been encouraging as 90 % of the bromelain recovery was possible.