One of the questions we are asked the most is what the units following our enzyme products actually mean.
Understanding enzyme activity can be very complex and confusing, however, Nutraceuticals Group is here to shed some light on how enzymes work and therefore, why enzyme units aren’t as mystifying (troublesome?) as they first appear to be.
How do Enzymes work?
Enzymes are biological catalysts, enhancing the speed of a chemical reaction, without being used up in the process. They are critical to lowering the amount of energy needed for a reaction to begin. To do this they lower the energy of the transition state, the unstable state that a product must pass through in order to become a reactant.
Enzymes bind to specific substrates; they have active sites made of amino acids, forming a specific shape of the exact substrate – a bit like a lock and key. This means they are only able to catalyse certain reactions. Not only do enzymes catalyse specific reactions, but they also require specific conditions to work, such as temperature and pH.
Higher temperatures generally increase the rate of a reaction, allowing for greater substrate turnover while pH influences the active site shape of the enzyme allowing for greater binding to the substrate.
Enzyme Functions
Enzymes have numerous functions from giving fireflies their renowned glow (luciferase) to allowing virus cells to break into cell walls and infect. In the human body, enzymes facilitate movement by stimulating muscle contraction, replicate DNA for growth and are vital to the body’s digestion of food. During digestion large molecules such as starch and protein are broken into smaller ones enabling their absorption by the intestines. Without these enzymes the human body would be unable to absorb the nutrients it needs.
Enzyme Potency
Keeping the function of enzymes in mind, we can now explore why they have such a unique way of being measured. Unlike other products, enzymes aren’t measured on weight or quantity – they’re measured on the amount of work they’re capable of doing.
For example Protease 5000 HUT/g is less potent and therefore will catalyse less substrate than Protease 10,000 HUT/g. Not only are enzymes classified by amount of work done, naming conventions may also include at what conditions they are most effective. For example, Protease 4.5 5000 HUT/g, indicates that the protease works best under pH 4.5. Understanding enzyme efficacy is vital when deciding on the perfect enzyme potency for the end use
Enzyme Units
Measuring enzymes according to the amount of substrate they break down, means that enzyme activity units are specific to the enzyme and substrate, therefore, one standard unit of measurement for all enzymes would not depict their true potency. For example, you can’t use the same units to measure the amount of protein protease breaks down and the amount of starch amylase breaks down – because they make different products. Although these specific units are vital to accurately measure enzyme activity, their complexity and the vast amount of them can be difficult to interpret.
Enzyme units can be split according to what standard they’re measured against: either the Food Chemical Codex (FCC) or USP. While the FCC compendium, set by the United States Pharmacopeia, specifies activity units of fungal and plant enzymes, USP units are more commonly used for those which are animal derived. USP units are listed as USP/mg, whereas FCC units are split depending on enzyme type, for example:
- Lactase: ALU/g
- Proteases: HUT/g, PU/mg, PC/g or SAP/g
- a-Amylase: DU/g
Click Here for our handy tools page on Enzyme Activity Measurement and Potency
Or please feel free to contact our friendly and knowledgeable technical sales colleagues to help guide you to the best solutions for your formulations.
Here are some of the enzymes we currently supply:
| Item Code | Name |
| NIGEENZ000090 | Amylase 2500 SKB/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000095 | Amylase 5000 SKB/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000101 | Amylase 50000 SKB/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000111 | Amylase 100000 SKB/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000191 | Bromelain 80 GDU/g 10:1 (Pineapple) (Ananas comosus) |
| NIGEENZ000201 | Bromelain 1200 GDU/g (Pineapple) (Ananas comosus) |
| NIGEENZ000202 | Bromelain 2400 GDU/g (Pineapple) (Ananas comosus) |
| NIGEENZ000203 | Bromelain 5000 GDU/g (Pineapple) (Ananas comosus) |
| NIGEENZ000204 | Bromelain 2000 GDU/g (Pineapple) (Ananas comosus) |
| NIGEENZ000206 | Bromelain 2500 GDU/g (Pineapple) (Ananas comosus) |
| NIGEENZ000208 | Catalase 600 Baker/g |
| NIGEENZ000209 | Catalase 25000 CU/g |
| NIGEENZ000210 | Cellulase (Trichoderma) 400 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000211 | Cellulase (Trichoderma) 4000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000213 | Cellulase (Trichoderma) 35000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000214 | Chitinase 1000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000215 | Hemicellulase 50000 CU/g |
| NIGEENZ000218 | Chitinase 200 U/g ¤ |
| NIGEENZ000221 | Chymotrypsin 75USP/mg ¤ |
| NIGEENZ000251 | Collagenase 250000U/g |
| NIGEENZ000261 | Endopeptidase 10,000 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ000265 | Exopeptidase 15,000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000271 | Ficin (Vegetable Protease) (Ficus insipida) 250 BAPA/g (Allergen – Sulphites) |
| NIGEENZ000301 | Glucoamylase 100000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000305 | Invertase 1000 SU/g |
| NIGEENZ000311 | Maltase 500 DP/g |
| NIGEENZ000321 | Maltase 12 DP/g |
| NIGEENZ000385 | Lactase 300 ALU/g |
| NIGEENZ000401 | Lactase 3000 ALU/g |
| NIGEENZ000402 | Lactase 3500 ALU/g |
| NIGEENZ000501 | Lactase 50000 ALU/g |
| NIGEENZ000505 | Lactase 65000 ALU/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000511 | Lactase 100000 ALU/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000550 | Lactoperoxidase 1000U/mg (Allergen – Milk) ¤ |
| NIGEENZ000585 | Lipase 60 U/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000590 | Lipase 1000 U/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000600 | Lipase 4000 FIP/g |
| NIGEENZ000601 | Lipase 5000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ000605 | Lipase 10000 U/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000608 | Lipase 50000 U/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000610 | Nattokinase 2000 FU/g |
| NIGEENZ000620 | Nattokinase 10000 FU/g |
| NIGEENZ000801 | Pancreatin 4XNF (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ000811 | Pancreatin 4XNF (Porcine) ¤ |
| NIGEENZ000901 | Papain 2000 USP-U/mg (Papaya) (Carica papaya) |
| NIGEENZ000911 | Papain 6000 USP-U/mg (Papaya) (Carica papaya) |
| NIGEENZ000915 | Papain 30000 USP-U/mg (Papaya) (Carica papaya) |
| NIGEENZ000921 | Pectinase 300 Endo-PG/g |
| NIGEENZ000925 | Pectinase 30000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ001101 | Pepsin 300NF (1:300) ¤ (Milk) |
| NIGEENZ001102 | Pepsin 3000NF (1:3000) ¤ (Milk) |
| NIGEENZ001105 | Pepsin 2500NF (1:2500) ¤ (Milk) |
| NIGEENZ001111 | Pepsin 2000NF (1:2000) ¤ (Milk) |
| NIGEENZ001121 | Pepsin 10000NF (1:10000) ¤ (Milk) |
| NIGEENZ001201 | Phytase 3000 U/g |
| NIGEENZ001291 | Protease 3 – 300000 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ001301 | Protease 3 – 30000 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ001401 | Protease 4.5 – 50000 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ001490 | Protease 200000 HUT/g (Fungal) |
| NIGEENZ001501 | Protease 10000 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ001511 | Protease 5000 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ001515 | Protease 12500 HUT/g |
| NIGEENZ001521 | Protease (Acid) 500 SAPU/g |
| NIGEENZ001601 | Serrapeptase (Serratiopeptidase) Fermented 1600 U/mg – Export |
| NIGEENZ001603 | Serrapeptase (Serratiopeptidase) Fermented 2000 U/mg – Export |
| NIGEENZ001605 | Serrapeptase (Serratiopeptidase) Fermented 2200 U/mg – Export |
| NIGEENZ001607 | Serrapeptase (Serratiopeptidase) Fermented 2400 U/mg – Export |
| NIGEENZ001651 | Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) Bovine 8000 U/g ¤ |
| NIGEENZ001655 | Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) Bovine 50 U/g ¤ |
| NIGEENZ001701 | Sucrase 1000 SU/g |
| NIGEENZ001705 | Sucrase 0.15SU/g |
| NIGEENZ001711 | Invertase Sucrase 10000 SU/g |
| NIGEENZ001751 | Trypsin 250USP/mg ¤ |
| NIGEENZ003001 | Ox Bile Powder CP2010 ¤ |