Author

Chau Ngo

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Walstrom, Katherine

Area of Concentration

Biochemistry

Abstract

Over-the-counter (OTC) digestive enzyme supplements containing the papaya protease papain are neither approved nor regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This work aimed to analyze the papain contents and determine the effectiveness of OTC papaya enzyme supplements. Based on the labeled amounts on the packaging of five different products, 4 mg mL-1 and 10 mg mL-1 papain extractions were prepared using a method adapted from a published study by Muharram and Abdel-Kader (2017). Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and a Bradford assay were performed to examine the purity and protein concentration in the supplements. Standard papain was used as the positive control in all experiments. Results showed that total protein concentrations were much lower than the labeled amounts.

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