Tool 06Pineapple
Bromelain
A protease that comes from pineapple.
Workbench
- Works on
- Proteins
- Leaves
- Shorter protein pieces
- Made by
- Pineapples, especially the stem.
- Works in
- Pineapple stems and fruit.
- Sound
- SNIP!
On the bench
Bromelain (Pineapple)
A stretch of gelatin (it repeats glycine, proline, hydroxyproline)
glycineprolinehydroxyprolineglycineprolinehydroxyprolineglycinealanine
Pick a link and cut it with the pineapple.
How it works
Bromelain is a protease that pineapples make. It’s in the fruit and, in bigger amounts, the stem.
It’s why fresh pineapple stops gelatin dessert from setting: gelatin is protein, and bromelain snips it. Canned pineapple has been heated, which switches the enzyme off, so it sets fine.
AnnouncerThe pineapple has not been told it’s a tool. Please don’t tell it.
Far-out fact
Fresh pineapple stops gelatin from setting. Its bromelain snips the gelatin’s protein.
On the menu
- Pineapple
Starring inEP 4 Snip Snip Hooray
Where it clocks in
The rest of the kit
Amylase
Lipase
Lactase
Alpha-galactosidase
BileSome food has no tool at all. That’s the buffet.
Coming up next on Channel GG
Papain
A protease that comes from papaya.
