Protease Enzyme-Potential Industrial Scope

Enzymes are vitally important for the existence of life. Civilizations have used enzymes for thousands of years without understanding what they were or how they work. Over the past several generations, science has unlocked the mystery of enzymes and has applied knowledge to make better use of it in an ever growing number of applications. Enzymes play crucial role in producing the food we eat, the clothes we wear and even in producing fuel for our automobiles. They are important in combating environmental pollution. Leather processing is one of the important industries closely related to everyday life. Proteases execute a large variety of functions and have important biotechnological applications. They represent one of the largest groups of industrial enzymes and find application in detergents industry, leather industry, food industry, pharmaceutical industry and bioremediation processes (Anwar and Saleemuddin, 1998; Gupta et al. 2002). Probably the largest application of proteases is in laundry detergents, where they help removing protein based stains from clothes (Banerjee et al. 1999). In textile industry, proteases may also be used to remove the stiff and dull gum layer from the raw silk fibre to achieve improved luster and softness. They can modify the surface of wool and silk fibres to provide new and unique finish. Proteases have been used in the hide-dehairing process, where dehairing is carried out at pH values between 8 and 10.