Effects of Enzyme Preparations upon Penicillin

Abstract

Several proteolytic and carbohydrate-splitting enzymes were studied for their possible neutralizing or inactivating effects upon the antibacterial action of penicillin. The protein-splitting enzymes, pepsin, trypsin, erepsin, pancreatin, ficin, and hurain, gave little, if any, evidence of antipenicillin activity. With one exception, the enzymes showing antipenicillin properties were proprietary products, taka-diastase and clarase, both of which are derived from Aspergillus oryzae. A bacterial enzyme prepn. from Bacillus mesentericus was also found to neutralize the antibacterial effects of the antibiotic agent. Use of a highly active clarase prepn. for inactivating penicillin in the sterility test is proposed:.