Enzymes from the washer to the laboratory
Biological catalysts are responsible for a variety of biochemical reactions, are present in animal and plant metabolic processes. Enzymes or biological catalysts are proteins responsible for a variety of biological responses, each day most interest due to many different applications in daily life, the enzymes are present on a daily basis, from laundry detergent to modification of DNA in research laboratories.
Enzymology:
The study of enzymes, determination of their properties and biochemical characteristics, as well as catalytic and metabolic functions are set through enzymology.
Historical Background:
The history of enzymology, is directly related to the study of biochemistry, both disciplines, evolved together from the research on fermentation and digestion in the nineteenth century.
Fermentation:
Research on fermentation is considered, which began in 1810 with Joseph Gay-Lussac who determined that ethanol and carbon dioxide (CO2) are the main products of the decomposition of sugar by yeast.
In 1853, Jacob Berzelius, the first general theory of chemical catalysis, indicated that a malt extract known as diastase catalyzed hydrolysis of starch more effectively than sulfuric acid, this like other mineral acids were inefficient to play other reactions biochemical laboratory, which led to Louis Pasteur, half of the nineteenth century, to suggest that fermentation could take place only in living cells.
Enzyme: in yeast
Thus, Pasteur assumed that living systems were equipped with a life force, which allowed them to escape the natural laws that govern inert matter, but others, most notably Justus von Liebig argued that biological processes are caused by the action of chemicals that were designated by the name of ferments.
Actually the name comes from the Greek enzyme enzymo meaning “in yeast”, as such term was coined in 1878 by Fredrich Wilhelm Kuhne who indicated that there is something in yeast, which is not yeast, which catalyze reactions fermentation. However, it was not until 1897 that Eduard Buchner received a cell-free extract of yeast that could effect the synthesis of ethanol from glucose, probably by action of enzymes now called enzymes.
Enzymes and proteins
The discovery of Emil Fisher in 1894, that the glycolytic enzymes can distinguish between the sugars, then in 1926, James Sumner crystallized the first enzyme, urease of soy that catalyzes the hydrolysis of urea to ammonia and carbon dioxide , noting that the crystals were made of protein. However, the protein nature of enzymes was definitively established around 1930, when John Northrop and Moses Kunitz indicated a direct correlation between the activities of trypsin, pepsin and chymotrypsin crystal and amounts of protein present.
Enzymes and technological progress
Since the mid-twentieth century, industrial application of enzymes has been dizzying. After the First World War, the German chemist Otto Rohm, conducted research on the treatment of skin using digestive substances, a method which has improved the look of them, compared with the application of traditional methods, the mixture formed the basis for the further development of the detergents by replacing the trypsin present in the digestive mixture by a bacterial protease.
Enzymes not only be applied in detergents but also in areas as diverse as environmental, medical, food, pharmaceutical, agricultural and livestock production. The main advantage of enzymes is to be biodegradable substances, this, coupled with the growing demand for environmentally friendly products, promote research into new applications of enzymes.
Enzymes have been around since the beginning of life on earth, but its written history begins from the nineteenth century, however, already developed important mechanisms of catalysis since the time of the Greeks, when applied to fermentation these wines, cheeses, yogurt and buttermilk, centuries before the emergence of chemical catalysts.
The chemicals used as catalysts, are restricted to specific conditions and extreme reaction. In contrast, the enzymes show greater flexibility to react and can operate in environmental conditions or adjusted to extreme. The fundamental importance of enzymes lies in their biodegradable properties and resilience thereof, after it has acted in a reaction. Given these characteristics, is developed worldwide cutting edge research, about the application and use of enzymes.
