ISSN 2320-5407 International Journal of Advanced Research (2014), Volume 2, Issue 5, 1173-1181 1173 Journal homepage: http://www.journalijar.com INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH RESEARCH ARTICLE Plant latex as vegetable source for milk clotting enzymes and their use in cheese preparation Raghunath T. Mahajan and Gunjan M. Chaudhari Department of Zoology and Biotechnology, Moolji Jaitha College, Jalgaon - 425 002, India . Manuscript Info Abstract Manuscript History: Received: 23 March 2014 Final Accepted: 25 April 2014 Published Online: May 2014 Key words: Latex, Proteolytic enzymes, Milk clotting activity, Euphorbian plants, Cheese production *Corresponding Author Raghunath T. Mahajan Evaluation is carried on milk clotting activity of the crude proteolytic enzymes present in the lattices of plants belonging to Euphorbiaceae family along with their use in cheese production. The results showed that milk clotting activity of crude enzyme of latex of four plants are in order of Euphorbia tirucalli followed by Euphorbia nerifolia, Euphorbia nivulia and Pedilanthus tithymaloides. Milk coagulation is the basic step in cheese making, therefore these crude enzymes were subjected to the production of cheese. Comparative account on percentage yield, total solid, moisture content and chemical composition of resultant cheese samples were also analyzed. The results revealed that, nutritional quality of cheese prepared from milk clotting enzymes of plant lattices of Euphorbiaceae family is not fully matched with Amul cheese; however it is comparable with cheese prepared using purified papain. Copy Right, IJAR, 2014,. All rights reserved INTRODUCTION Cheese is one of the numerous products from the processing of milk. Cheese is used as a form of preserving essential nutrients in milk and is an excellent source of nutrients such as protein, fat, minerals and vitamins. Cheese manufacture is essentially a dehydration process in which the fat and casein of milk are concentrated 6-10-fold (Omotosho et al., 2011). Since long the animal rennin (or rennet) is employed in making cheese. The enzyme rennet is obtained on a commercial scale from the fourth or true stomach of the unweaned calves which are specifically slaughtered for this purpose. One calf produces only 5 to 10 gm of rennet. The enzyme helps in coagulating the casein of milk. The milk clotting property of enzyme is important with regard to the quality and yield of cheese. It has been suggested that a firmer curd at cutting is positively correlated to yield of cheese (Wedholm et al., 2006). Much research interest has been directed towards discovering a milk-clotting enzyme which would satisfactorily replace calf rennet produced by genetically engineered bacteria have proven suitable substitutes for animal rennet but increasing attention has been directed towards natural rennet extract of plant origin (Mahajan and Badgujar, 2010). Plant proteases employed for cheese production in various areas of the world include papain, bromelin, ficin, oryzasin, cucumisin, sodom apple and Jacaratia corumbensis (Duarte et al.2009). In Sudan dairy farmers used the berries of Solanum dubium to make white soft cheese using goat and sheep milk (Ahmed et al., 2009). Another commonly used vegetable rennet is an extract from the shrub, Calotropis procera commonly known as Dead Sea Apple. It contains the enzyme, calotropin, which is more active at pH 6.4 (Omotosho et al., 2011). Recently, Mahami et al., (2012) demonstrated that Moringa oleifera seed extract enrichment resulted in significant increases in the yield, protein content and mineral content of cottage cheese. The crude enzyme of plant lattices used to prepare white cheese was suitable as compared with rennet extract in addition, it is less expensive than other coagulants to manufacture white cheese Therefore, in the present study comparative account on milk clotting enzyme of lattices of four members of Euphorbiaceae family is given along with their application in cheese production.