ABSTRACT
The use of enzymes is an old practice, considering that the date of its origin has been lost in time. Said and Pietro (2010) reported that during thousands of years, such biological catalysts have been applied as crude preparations of vegetable, animal or microbial origin, without the essential nature of an enzyme to be fully understood. The fi rst example of the application of crude enzymatic preparations is believed to have been in the production of cheese, a process in which the catalyst used was a macerated calf’s stomach. Such reports were present in the oldest civilizations, such as ancient Egypt (Said and Pietro 2010).
