Abstract
This study was devised to elucidate whether soused shrimp exhibits a digestive action on boiled pork meats. and the mechanism by which sousing with a high concentration of sodium chloride preserves nutrients in foods for a prolonged pe\ulcornerriod. Protease was isolated from soused shrimp using a combination of ammonium sulfate fractionation. DEAE - cellulose ion exchange chromatography and gel filtra\ulcornertion. The isolated protease had specific activity of 1.560 units. 210 purification fo\ulcornerld with an yield of 38%. Its optimum pH and temperature were 8.0 and $43^{\circ}C$ respectively. The molecular weight of the enzyme was 35.000. The Km value of the enzyme for casein was 1.6 x $10^{-6}$ M The e=yme required the presence of cu\ulcornerpric ion to exhibit its full activity. Eighty eight percent of the enzyme activity was in\ulcornerhibited by 3.5M NaCI showing a reversibly linear decrease of the enzyme activity as NaCI concentration increased. The nature of the inhibition by NaCl was rever\ulcornersible and noncompetitive. The protease activity in soused shrimp was well preser\ulcornerved with the elapse of time at least in part due to NaCI induced suppression of autodigestion. The enzyme was denatured by acid easily. i.e. 1% of the original activity remained after staying at pH 2 for 10 minutes. which is within the norm\ulcorneral range of pH of the human stomach. Soused shrimp was observed to be one of those containing the highest protease activity compared with the other soused foo\ulcornerds such as soused oyster. squid. clam. and Pollack intestine with respect to spec\ulcornerific activities of dialized 1:4 whole homogenates(w/v) in 5 mM sodium phospha\ulcornerte - 2.4 mM j3 - mercaptoethanol buffer. pH 8.0. Casein and boiled meats including pork, beef, and chicken appeared to be the good substrates for the protease. Casein was the best. Therefore. the ingestion of boiled meats including pork together with soused sh\ulcornerrimp would help digestion of boiled pork in human not only by increasing appe\ulcornertite also by the direct proteolytic digestion of boiled meats by soused shrimp to\ulcorner some extent. And a high concentration of sodium chloride inhibited the protease activity reversibly in a remarkable degree, which ensued in a significant retardat\ulcornerion of autodigestion of protein in foods by proteases, and hereby contributed to the preservation of foods for an extended period.
