Review: Current perspectives on enzyme applications in medicine, agriculture, and industries

Abstract. Dahiru MM, Abdulhamid AA, Abaka AM. 2024. Review: Current perspectives in enzyme applications in medicine, agriculture, and industries. Asian J Trop Biotechnol 21: 10-25. The conventional use of chemicals worldwide in different industries has significantly increased, impacting the environment. The need to improve industrial processes led to prospects into enzymes from various sources, including microbial sources to substitute the toxic chemicals and processes with environmentally friendly processes and biodegradable waste products. Enzyme applications are notably getting more attention in medicine, agriculture, and industries, including pharmaceuticals, food, detergents, leather, and cosmetics. They are utilized in these industries to enhance durability of product, shorten process time, improve efficiency and stability, and properly manage waste. Medicine mainly uses them for diagnostic and treatment purposes, including proteases and amylases. The pharmaceutical industries explore the specificity of enzymes to bind target substrates, yielding specific and desired products via reactions, including hydrolysis, acylation, and esterifications. Waste and pathogen treatments, in addition to soil and plant improvements, are the major applications of enzymes in agriculture, employing pectinases, cellulases, and xylanases. In the food industry, amylases are used for starch degradation and dough improvement, while proteases are used for juice beer production clearance. The detergent industry adds enzymes to its formulations, including lipases, proteases, and cellulases, to improve stain removal by modifying fabric fibers to release dirt and soil particles. Enzymes, including proteases and lipases, are used in the leather industry for curing, soaking, dehairing, degreasing, and tanning, in addition to waste elimination. In comparison, an immobilized lipase is utilized in the cosmetic industry to produce retinoids, protein disulfide isomerase, glutathione sulfhydryl oxidase, and transglutaminase are applied in hair waving. Furthermore, developing the cost-effective technique of enzyme immobilization technology further promotes the application of enzymes in these endeavors attributed to their stability and recyclability. Thus, there is a significant improvement in research towards green and eco-friendly applications of enzymes. This review discusses how enzymes have been successfully deployed and utilized in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutical, food, detergent, leather, and cosmetics industries. Enzymes in these industries exhibited beneficial applications, though the recyclability of the enzymes remains challenging for some endeavors. However, immobilization techniques have been gaining attention which might present a solution to the challenges associated with enzyme reusability.