Enzymes in Antiquity

The oldest known reference to the commercial use of enzymes comes from a description of wine making in the Codex of Hammurabi (ancient Babylon,circa 2100 ..). The use of microorganisms as enzyme sources for fermentation was widespread among ancient people. References to these processes can be found in writings not only from Babylon but also from the early civilizations of Rome, Greece, Egypt, China, India. Ancient texts also contain a number of references to the related process of vinegar production, which is based on the
enzymatic conversion of alcohol to acetic acid. Vinegar, it appears, was a common staple of ancient life, being used not only for food storage and preparation but also for medicinal purposes.

Dairy products were another important food source in ancient societies. Because in those days fresh milk could not be stored for any reasonable length of time, the conversion of milk to cheese became a vital part of food production, making it possible for the farmer to bring his product to distant markets in an acceptable form. Cheese is prepared by curdling milk via the action of any of a number of enzymes. The substances most commonly used
for this purpose in ancient times were ficin, obtained as an extract from fig trees, and rennin, as rennet, an extract of the lining of the fourth stomach of a multiple-stomach animal, such as a cow. A reference to the enzymatic activity of ficin can, in fact, be found in Homer’s classic, the Iliad:

As the juice of the fig tree curdles milk, and thickens it in a moment though it be liquid, even so instantly did Paee¨ on cure fierce Mars.

The philosopher Aristotle likewise wrote several times about the process of milk curdling and offered the following hypothesis for the action of rennet:

Rennet is a sort of milk; it is formed in the stomach of young animals while still being suckled. Rennet is thus milk which contains fire, which comes from the heat of the animal while the milk is undergoing concoction.

Another food staple throughout the ages is bread. The leavening of bread by yeast, which results from the enzymatic production of carbon dioxide, was well known and widely used in ancient times. The importance of this process to ancient society can hardly be overstated.

Meat tenderizing is another enzyme-based process that has been used since antiquity. Inhabitants of many Pacific islands have known for centuries that the juice of the papaya fruit will soften even the toughest meats. The active enzyme in this plant extract is a protease known as papain, which is used even today in commercial meat tenderizers. When the British Navy began exploring the Pacific islands in the 1700s, they encountered the use of the papaya fruit as a meat tenderizer and as a treatment for ringworm. Reports of these native uses of the papaya sparked a great deal of interest in eighteenth-century Europe, and may, in part, have led to some of the more systematic studies of digestive enzymes that ensued soon after.

From: Enzymes: A Practical Introduction to Structure, Mechanism, and Data Analysis.
Robert A. Copeland