Using enzymes to boost yeilds

[Kazoo...]

i started a thread proposing working with enzymes a while back, the one i thought of first was Papain, because it happened to be in my medicine cabinet at the time, alas no research was conducted by me and the idea was returned to the shelf because as Crystalito so eloquently put it "the inertia of "known methods" was hard to overcome"........

heres a link: using "papain" to break down plant proteins

 

[benzyme]

enzymes which hydrolyze polysaccharides would be more appropriate than proteases. cellullose is a polysaccharide.
an [enzyme] bioreactor with a stirrer would be the vessel to conduct such an experiment, but those are $$$

something cheaper could be devised, but a method of stirring is not optional, it's a necessity.


on another note, a protease might be useful in the extraction of psilocin, for obvious reasons.

 

[Czepa]

so we can just buy this stuff and mix some of it in with our acid cook before we do a vinegar/lye A/B extraction?

 

[benzyme]

no

it would need to be mixed with a buffer solution, not acid

 

[State of the Mind]

The idea of using enzymes is a brilliant one. However you have got to ask a few questions.

How much is the use of enzymes really going to improve your yield?
Is the price of some of the enzymes really worth it?

Also, you mentioned pectolase, it is used in homebrewing to mainly to reduce pectin hazes. Basically it breaks down the insoluble pectin molecules that produce a haze in wines and some ciders. however, pectin is mostly found in the fruits of plants, not in their roots, as a result the use of pectin on MHRB would be needless.

You also raised the point of using cellulase, which I think could be quite useful as it will break the MHRB down to allow more goodies to be extracted.

However a problem that will have to be addressed, is that enzymes need to be at an optimum pH and temperature to work. For cellulase: 40-60ºC and a pH between 4 & 5. This seems to be a lot of effort and for the increase in yield that you would be gaining, it does not seem worthwhile

 

[benzyme]

it probably isn't.

while enzymes are incredible biological machines, the gains realized for this would be marginal at best, if any at all. it's not a cost-effective method for this particular application, and most likely has no real advantage yield-wise over acid or base hydrolysis.