Since ancient times, Man has exploited the enzymes found in nature, though unwittingly.For example, for hundreds of years, the brewing process in many countries has depended on barley malt. Barley was malted without really knowing what happened during malting. All the brewers knew was that they could not make good beer without barley malt.

In fact, we now know that one of the most important differences between raw barley and malted barley is enzymes. Raw barley contains beta-amylase but has a low content of other enzymes, whereas malt is rich in a whole range of useful enzymes.

The first rootlets start to appear and at this point the grain is kilned to reduce the moisture level and stop further growth. If the grain was allowed to continue growing, the enzymes would break down all the food reserves to small molecules that could be used as nutrients for the growth of both roots and shoots.

It is these food reserves the brewer wants as well as the enzymes necessary to convert them into small molecules that can be assimilated by the yeast during fermentation of the beer. A grain of malt satisfies both these needs and can be thought of as a small package of enzymes and food.

The explanation is that fruit contains a substance called pectin. In the unripe fruit, this is present in an insoluble form called protopectin, but as the fruit ripens, the pectolytic enzymes break down the pectin to more soluble forms.

This effect can be seen clearly in an over-ripe apple where the enzymes have broken down most of the insoluble pectin that is responsible for the firm structure of the apple. As a result the apple has become soft and mushy on the outside.

What is interesting for fruit juice producers is that this natural process can be speeded up considerably by adding the appropriate industrial enzymes. Many producers do this after mashing the apples and prior to pressing. By accelerating the changes started during ripening, they extract far more juice.

Campo's enzymes are just as natural, but they come from a different source. Almost all of Campo's cosmetic industrial enzymes originate from microorganisms' genetic extrapolated into fruit cells. Microorganisms can be bacteria, funds or yeasts and different species thrive in different conditions. The search for a new enzyme can start by examining water and soil samples natural products samples and botanical samples from the far corners of the world.

Just one microorganism can contain over 1,000 different enzymes. A long period of trial and error in the laboratory is needed to isolate the best microorganism for producing a particular type of enzyme. When the right microorganism has been found, the work is still not over. The microorganism's genes has to be modified and transcripted into the biotechnologic fruit cells, so that it (micro-organisms genetic transcription combined in the biotechnologic fruits' genes) is capable of producing the desired enzyme at high yields in the biotechnologic fruit cells.

Then the fruit cells is 'grown' in huge mass-tissue culture vats or tanks where it produces the desired enzyme. The technique of mass-tissue culture fruit cells has made it possible to produce enzymes economically and in virtually unlimited quantities.

The end-product of mass-tissue-culture is primed matured fruit cells in a broth from which the enzymes are extracted, After this, the remaining media broth is centrifuged or filtered to remove all solid particles. The resulting biomass, or sludge in everyday language, contains the residues of fruit cells and raw materials.

For past 25 years, tobacco in Japan has been produced in this way and now, this technology is used in converting this techniques to produce cosmetic enzymes such as fruit enzymes with detergency properties, and skin-care enzymes, sunscreen and UV-filter enzymes.

The by-products (sludge)of this technology is disposed in the best way to minimize impact on the environment. A recycling project was started as early as 1963, converting a large part of the waste sludge into pulverized anhydrous powder for agriculture industry to be used as fertilizer. This is an example of industry giving back to nature, rather than depleting natural resources.

Nature, it seems, has provided all the enzymes the world is likely to need; literally millions, each with a specific role in nature. By isolating them and producing them on a large scale, they can be used in the service of mankind for a vast range of applications.

This can be illustrated briefly by going back to the apple and malt mentioned earlier above, as an comparison:

Campo produces a range of sunscreen/solar UV-filtering enzymes called UV-zymes and UV-extremo-zymes,; Pseudo-Phyto-p53 enhancer that is of the same type as that found in all the various plants / herbs to protect themselves from solar UV-radiation. By adding this enzyme, a sunscreen topical formulation the SPF and UV filtering and absorbing properties can dramatically increase and the less or none of any other chemical or organic sunscreen are needed. In this way, industrial enzymes can be used to give nature a helping hand.

Many of the enzymes contained in fruit can also be produced bio-technologically via biotechnological techniques.. In fact, in some cases the industrial enzymes are an improvement on the fermentation - obtained enzymes because they are better adapted to the conditions found in industrial applications.

An other example is fruit enzymes with detergency properties, these used to replace the harsh irritant potential surfactants, and consequently these fruit enzyme can be replaced as detergents and its content, can vary considerably 0.1 - 50% in a concentrate.

These are a few of the possibilities opened up by biotechnologic industrial enzymes. There are many more and the main applications of enzymes in industry are described under Industrial Applications. (for household and industrial applications- available on request