Influence of feeding habits of fish on the characteristics of their visceral alkaline proteases with special reference to detergent compatibility

Abstract

Proteases are recognized as potential industrial enzymes due to their scope of applications in industries such as detergent, food, leather and pharmaceuticals and also in a large variety of functions in biological systems and biotechnology. In the field of industrial bioprocessing, proteinases represent one of the most studied enzymes. Although presently, the main sources of proteases are constituted by animals, plants and microbes, but the proteolytic enzymes from fish are evolving as a new potential source with growing demand. Huge amount of digestive tract or the viscera is usually wasted in the fish processing plants and markets, and in most of the time, these valuable sources of proteases are dumped into the municipal garbage without any attempt for recycling. However, several biotechnological processes are available for utilization of those wastes for highly beneficial purpose of the mankind. Fish viscera constitutes about 5% to 8% of the total fish weight and one of the most important by-products of fish processing sector (Mahendrakar, 2000). Due to the unique properties of fish visceral proteases such as high activity over a wide range of pH and temperature conditions, they can be used for several industrial applications (El Hadj-Ali et al., 2011;