IMPORTANCE OF PINEAPPLE (Ananas comosus L.) WASTE AS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF INDUSTRIAL PROTEASES

Abstract

Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) is a tropical fruit highly valued for its flavor, sweetness, aroma, and nutraceutical properties. The ‘Cayena Lisa’ cultivar is the most widely used for both fresh consumption and industrial purposes in Mexico. The municipalities of Tuxtepec and Loma Bonita, in the state of Oaxaca, produce around 582 thousand Mg of solid waste per year from fruit processing, to which the waste from plantations attacked by pests and diseases must be added. Consequently, these wastes must be processed in order to generate added value. Isolation of cysteine proteases from industrial residues is one possibility. In the present study, the parameters of the Mexican Official Standard for measuring pH (NOM-F-317-S-1978), total soluble solids (SST) (NMX-F-103-1982), and cysteine-protease activity in pineapple fruit processing residues at two stages of ripening over four months of harvest were used to determine whether there is a factor of quality attributes that correlates with the activity of this protein. In both ripening stages, cysteine-protease activity is higher in August. Regardless of the degree of ripening, peel and core are the best sources of cysteine-proteases. SST and pH values have no correlation with cysteine-protease activity, so they cannot be used as indicators of such activity. The findings show that ‘Cayena Lisa’ pineapple residues grown in Loma Bonita, Oaxaca, could be a good source of cysteine-proteases.