Characterization of trypsin enzyme extracted from intestines of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) from Indonesian seawater

Recently, there has been a major concern about fisheries waste produced by tuna processing factories. There are many ways to handle the waste from tuna processing factories, specifically the tuna viscera which contains the stomach, pyloric caeca, kidneys, and intestines. The tuna viscera have been known as a source of digestive enzymes, one of them is a protease, including trypsin. The objective of this research was to analyze the enzymatic characteristic of trypsin extracted from two different tuna species. In this study, the trypsin extracted from the intestines of yellowfin and bigeye tuna was characterized by analyzing its enzyme activity as well as optimum temperature and pH, protein concentration, kinetic studies, and molecular weight. The results reveal that the enzyme activity and protein concentration observed in bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) were significantly higher than in yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares). In addition, trypsin bigeye and yellowfin tuna had the optimum temperature and pH from both crude extracts within the range of 50-60˚C and 7-8, respectively. Moreover, the molecular weights of trypsin enzymes extracted from yellowfin (T. albacares) and bigeye tuna (T. obesus) were 29 kDa.