The history of industrial enzymes dates back to 1874 when Hansen manufactured chymosin from the stomach of calves for manufacture of cheese. Jokichi Takamine was the first person to manufacture an enzyme from a microbial source when he manufactured taka-diastase from Aspergillus as a digestive enzyme in 1894.
The source of industrial enzymes is plant or animal tissues and microbes. In these days, however, the manufacture of enzymes by fermentation using microbes is mainly employed for the reason of efficiency and economy.
Microbes employed for the manufacture of enzymes are highly safe microorganisms that have been used for a long time in the manufacture of fermented foods such as beer, cheese, soy sauce, and yogurt. These microbes are bred by the use of traditional techniques or genetic recombination techniques.
Amano Enzyme Co., Ltd. has been manufacturing enzymes from microbes since 1950, and now supplies a variety of industrial enzymes manufactured by the use of two cultivation methods: solid culture method and liquid culture method.
The field of use for industrial enzymes has now extended to almost all industries handling organic compounds. Enzymes are used variably, for example, as ingredients of detergents, reagents for analysis of drugs or blood components, food use or food additives, fiber processing use or pulp processing in the paper industry, and environmental purification use. The method of enzyme use also varies, for example, as an enzyme preparation, on the surface of an insoluble carrier in a bioreactor, or a biosensor with the enzyme integrated into an electrode.
The industrial enzyme market (except for medicines) is about 2700 billion Yen (world market) or 25 billion Yen (Japanese market) and is composed largely of enzymes used as detergent ingredients and enzymes for food processing applications.
