Properties and Therapeutic Application of Bromelain: A Review

Abstract

Bromelain belongs to a group of protein digesting enzymes obtained commercially from the fruit or stem of pineapple. Fruit bromelain and stem bromelainare prepared differently and they contain different enzymatic composition. “Bromelain” refers usually to the “stem bromelain.” Bromelain is a mixture of different thiol endopeptidases and other components like phosphatase, glucosidase, peroxidase, cellulase, escharase, and several protease inhibitors. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that bromelain exhibits various fibrinolytic, antiedematous, antithrombotic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Bromelain is considerably absorbable in the body without losing its proteolytic activity and without producing any major side effects. Bromelain accounts for many therapeutic benefits like the treatment of angina pectoris, bronchitis, sinusitis, surgical trauma, and thrombophlebitis, debridement of wounds, and enhanced absorption of drugs, particularly antibiotics. It also relieves osteoarthritis, diarrhea, and various cardiovascular disorders. Bromelain also possesses some anticancerous activities and promotes apoptotic cell death. This paper reviews the important properties and therapeutic applications of bromelain, along with the possible mode of action.

Bromelain: Methods of Extraction, Purification and Therapeutic Applications

“…Extraction of bromelain from these parts is attractive not only from environmental point of view but also economically . Bromelain can be easily extracted from the juice of pineapple by ultrafiltration (Larocca et al 2010) but still FBM is not commercially available due to being different from SBM (Pavan et al 2012). The marketable bromelain is mostly extracted from the stem of pineapple through centrifugation, ultrafiltration, lyophilization (Corzo et al 2011) and two-step Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (FPLC) (Harrach et al 1998).…”

“…Amongst other, cysteine is the most efficient compound for the activation of bromelain (Grzonka et al 2007). SBM is in fact a combination of several thiol endopeptidases (Pavan et al 2012) and also contains compounds like peroxidases, acid phosphatase, several protease inhibitors glucosidases, cellulases, glycoproteins, carbohydrates and organically intact Ca 2+ (Maurer 2001;Smith-Marshall and Golden 2012).…”

“…Likewise bromelain present in the stem of pineapple is called stem bromelain (SBM) and its EC number is EC 3.4.22.32. Stem bromelain possess different biochemical properties and composition as compared to fruit bromelain (Pavan et al 2012) and contains a variegated blend of different thiol-endopeptidases. Efforts are being made by researchers to achieve highly purified bromelain in less steps and low cost.…”

Current experience and future perspectives of bromelain application in medicine

“…utvrđena je terapijska efikasnost i u dozama 120-160 mg/dnevno. Najbolji rezultati postižu se kada se primenjuje u dozi od 750 mg dnevno sat vremena pre obroka u obliku gastrorezistentnih tableta (7), pri čemu se, što je dokazano na osnovu istraživanja, apsorbuje do 40% u nepromenjenom obliku preko creva (8).…”

“…Primenjen u dozi od 1500 mg/kg na pacovima bromelain nije uzrokovao nikakve promene unosa hrane, rasta, histologije srca, slezine i bubrega, niti promene hematoloških parametara (10). takođe, nisu uočeni ni karcinogeni ili teratogeni efekti (8).…”