Enzymes, post-harvest

Many plants owe their activity to compounds which are only formed as a result of post harvest enzyme effects. Examples include vanilla pods where there is no vanillin in the freshly picked pod it is formed only during fermentation of the pod which involves an enzymatic hydrolysis of a glycoside. 

Enzymes play a critical role in the food sciences. They are essential for life itself, and thus for food production. Their activity is responsible for many of the post-harvest and post-mortem changes in foods, thus effecting sensory attributes. In addition, enzymes are increasingly being used in the processing of foods. 

In conclusion, the results presented in this report and by others tend to indicate that tyrosinase activity and the isoenzyme content in mushrooms (1) are very complicated, (2) are different in pre-harvest development, (3) vary from tissue to tissue, (4) are composed of latent and active enzyme forms and that no new isoenzyme forms are synthesized during development. The applications of these findings may be of interest to the mushroom industry but also indicate the need for further study of the enzyme during pre-harvest and post-harvest development and storage. 

Sotelo, C.G. and Rehbein, H. 2000. TMAO-degrading enzymes. In Seafood Enzymes Utilization and Influence on Post Harvest Seafood Quality (Haard, N.F. and Simpson, B.K., eds.), pp. 167-190. Marcel Dekker New York. 

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