Abstract

Sulforaphane (SFN) is an isothiocyanate found in broccoli that comes from the hydrolysis of glucoraphanin by the enzyme myrosinase (EC 3.2.1.147). SFN has gained the interest of pharmaceutical and food industry due to its outstanding health promoting properties, derived from its action as Phase II enzymes inductor. Extraction of SFN from the plants is inefficient and implies the use of toxic solvents. An alternative is to conduct the hydrolysis under controlled conditions, what implies the use of myrosinase. Aiming at developing a process to produce broccoli myrosinase, the myrosinase cDNA was cloned and expressed in P. pastoris X-33, a protein-overproducing GRAS strain, and the produced enzyme was purified by batch adsorption. The yield obtained from the purification process was 3-fold higher than the best recovery reported so far. Since batch adsorption is relatively inexpensive, and considering the high myrosinase recovery, this process has potential use at productive level.