| Papain family cysteine protease | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Papain from Carica papaya | |||||||||
| Identifiers | |||||||||
| Symbol | Peptidase_C1 | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF00112 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR000668 | ||||||||
| PROSITE | PDOC00126 | ||||||||
| SCOP2 | 1aec / SCOPe / SUPFAM | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Papain, also known as papaya proteinase I, is a cysteine protease (EC 3.4.22.2) enzyme present in papaya (Carica papaya) and mountain papaya (Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis). It is the namesake member of the papain-like protease family.
It has wide ranging commercial applications in the leather, cosmetic, textiles, detergents, food and pharmaceutical industries. In the food industry, papain is used as an active ingredient in many commercial meat tenderizers.[1]
- ^ Islam MN, Molinar-Toribio EM (July–December 2013). "Development of a meat tenderizer based on papaya peel. Observación por Pares Basada en Mapas Conceptuales: Una Estrategia para Fomentar el "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" en la Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá. 2013;24" (PDF). RIDTEC. 9 (2).