History of enzyme

Enzymes are catalysts. They speed up the rates of reactions without themselves undergoing any permanent change. Early discovery of enzyme is primarily associated with the knowledge of alcoholic fermentation.

The earliest known references to enzymes are from ancient texts dealing with the manufacture of cheese, breads and alcoholics beverages and for the tenderizing meats.

The oldest known references to the commercial use of enzymes come from a description of wine making in the Codex of Hammurabi (2100 BC).

It was not until the 19th century AD, however, that scientists addressed the question of whether the entity responsible for processes such as fermentation was a living species or a chemical substance.

But in 1857 Louis Pasteur demonstrated that alcoholic fermentation was brought by the action of living yeast. This concept was later disputed by J. Liebig who proposed that fermentation could take place even in the absence of living cells.

The properties and reactions of enzyme catalysis were first recognized by G.S.S Kirchhoff in 1811.

The word catalyst was coined in 1836 by the great Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius. The term ‘enzyme’ is derived from the Greek which literally means ‘in yeast’ was coined by Freidrich Wilhelm Kuhne in 1876. At that time it was used to distinguish between ‘organized ferment’ and ‘unorganized ferments’.

The history of modern enzyme technology really began in 1874 when the Danish chemist Christian Hansen produced the first specimen of rennet by extracting dried claves’ stomach with saline solution.

In 1897 Eduard Buchner published the observation that cell-free extracts of yeast containing no living cells were able to carry out the fermentation of sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

In 1926, Sumner crystallized urease from jack bean meal and announced it to be a simple protein. In 1930 there were approximately 80 known enzymes.

In 1960 there were over 1300 known enzymes and the number is continually expanding as modern research discovers more enzymes.
History of enzyme

The Discovery of Enzyme

The most varied and most highly specialized proteins are those with catalytic activity--the enzymes.

The word enzymes comes from the Greek root ‘enzymos’, which means “to cause change.”

Historically, biological catalysis has been used by mankind for thousands of years, ever since fermentation was discovered as a process for brewing and bread making in ancient Egypt.

It was not until the 19th century AD, however, that scientist addressed the question of whether the entity responsible for processes such as fermentation was a living species or a chemical substance.

The first isolation of an enzyme by Payen and Persoz in 1833. They added ethanol to an aqueous extract of malt and obtained a heat labile precipitate that was utilized to hydrolyze starch to soluble sugar.

The substance in this precipitate, which they called ‘diastase’, is now known as amylase.

In 1857, Louis Pasteur established that the process of fermentation was closely associated with the growth and life of yeast.

Eduard Buchner coined the term called ‘zymase’ which found in yeast cells was responsible for fermentation.

What is enzyme? Enzyme is a protein that speeds up or catalyzes a chemical reaction. It is a protein catalyst employed by a cell to speed up metabolic reactions.

It was Duclaux who proposed in 1898 that all enzymes should have the suffix “ase” so that a substance would be recognized as an enzyme from the name.
The Discovery of Enzyme