Studies pertaining to coagulant and proteolytic activities of plant proteases from Cynara cardunculus

Studies encompassing variation of milk clotting time with the concentration of proteases extracted from Cynara cardunculus were performed; milk clotting time dependence is not linear, and a model was postulated that fits well the experimental data obtained, and hence may be useful in predicting changes during the cheesemaking process. Parallel studies were also conducted pertaining to proteolysis of a mixture of ovine and caprine caseins, in attempts to investigate the stability of the aforementioned coagulating enzymes in crude or in pure form, with or without previous incubation for a certain time under typical ripening conditions. The enzymes exhibited an increase in activity whenever previous incubation had taken place. Moreover, the extent of enzyme-mediated proteolysis was always higher on caprine than on ovine milk caseins.