Pineapple fruit bromelain recovery using recyclable functionalized ordered mesoporous silica synthesized from sugarcane leaf ash

Bromelain, a protease enzyme found in Ananas comosus (Pineapple), was recovered from the fruit juice by adsorption using recyclable functionalized Santa Barbara Acid-15 (SBA-15) synthesized from sugarcane leaf ash. In this work, highly ordered mesoporous silica was synthesized from sugarcane leaf ash by a template-assisted method. It was successfully used as an adsorbent for the recovery of bromelain from pineapple fruit pulp. Amine-functionalized mesoporous silica exhibited a recovery efficiency of 97.89% and a 6.2-fold purification. It was also established that the adsorbent could be easily ...