ABSTRACT
Enzymes are highly efficient catalysts from biological sources that catalyze all synthetic and degradative reactions of living organisms. There is an ever-increasing demand to replace traditional chemical processes with advanced biotechnological processes involving microorganisms and enzymes, such as pectinases, cellulases and ligninases. The commercial application of pectinases was first observed in 1930 in wine and fruit juice preparation. It was only in the 1960s that when the chemical nature of plant tissues became apparent that scientists began to use a greater range of enzymes more efficiently. The pectinases or pectinolytic enzymes are a group of complex enzymes widely distributed in higher plants and microorganisms where pectin serves as the substrate. Microorganisms responsible for various plant diseases produce pectinases. Pectinolytic enzymes are commercially important in a number of industrial processes and are almost exclusively derived from fungal species, especially Mucor and Aspergillus. Pectinase treatment accelerates tea fermentation and also destroys the foam-forming property of instant tea powders by destroying pectins.
