Your Guide to Urease

by

Adam Johnston

Urease is one of a large range of intricate proteins called enzymes which play an essential role in maintaining organisms and are used by medical professionals and pharmacists to induce specific reactions in living cells. But what are the specific characteristics of Urease? Where is it found, and how exactly is it used? We re now going to discuss the facts about Urease and answer any questions about the enzyme that you may have.

What is Urease?

Urease is an enzyme which has a primary function to catalyse and turn the compound urea, which is essentially the waste that the body produces after it metabolizes protein in the liver, into carbon dioxide and ammonia. It can be found in plants, seeds and invertebrates as well as animals, but is primarily extracted from cultivated jack bean seeds, and it will take around 6 weeks for the pure urease to be completely extracted. It s estimated that two tonnes of jack beans will only be able to produce kilogram quantities of useable, pure urease.

Urease is notable because it was actually the first enzyme ever to be purified and extracted. This was done by a scientist called James Sumner back in 1926. It was a discovery that both kick-started the large-scale use of enzymes and eventually earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946.

How does urease work?

Although Urease is a very complex protein, job that it performs is relatively simple. It is needed in order to facilitate the production of ammonia, which organisms require as a building block for making proteins and other complex molecules. When urease comes into contact with urea that is excreted by the liver, it will start the decomposition of the urea to both ammonia and carbon dioxide.

This simple process itself accounts for the majority of the ammonia generated from mammals in the natural world. It is also the way in which bodies, organisms and ecosystems can ensure that they have the ammonia they need to function. In nature, the majority of ammonia found in soil is as a result of urease, because it extracts ammonia from the urea found in faeces.

What other functions does urease offer?

Urease is used in medical circles as an antitumor enzyme for cancers. The hydrolysis of urea can also produce ammonium carbonate, a salt that has uses including as a leavening agent to replace baking powder in cooking recipes or as a smelling salt. Ammonium carbonate is also found in some smokeless tobacco products.

BBI Enzymes have more than 30 years experience of producing and supplying enzymes such as

Urease

that are tested to the highest standard for use in scientific studies and experiments. For more information about Urease, or the other enzymes BBI supply, visit the

BBI Enzymes

website.

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Your Guide to Urease