CHARACTERIZATION AND INACTIVATION BY THERMAL AND PRESSURE PROCESSING OF STRAWBERRY (FRAGARIA ANANASSA) POLYPHENOL OXIDASE: A KINETIC STUDY

Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was isolated from strawberries (Fragaria ananassa) and some of its biochemical characteristics were studied. The optimum pH for strawberry PPO activity was pH= 5.0. K m and V max values were 5.95 mM and 133.8 A 420nm /min using a 50 mM catechol substrate solution. Kinetic studies showed that the thermal inactivation of strawberry PPO followed biphasic kinetics, resulting in an activation energy of 314.1 kJ/molfor the labile fraction and 321.3 kJ/mol for the stable fraction. Pressure/ temperature inactivation of the stable fraction of strawberry PPO can be adequately described by a first-order model. Pressure and temperature were found to act synergistically, except in the high temperature-low pressure region where an antagonistic effect was observed. A second-degree polynomial model was successfully applied to describe the temperature/pressure dependence of the inactivation rate constants of the stable strawberry PPO fraction.