Abstract

The increasing variety of enzyme preparations which are recommended by producers for the tanning industry suggest the necessity for information on the influence of these preparations on components of hides and skins in order to maintain the quality of finished leather. Methods of testing the ability of enzyme preparations to degrade some non-collagenous proteins were developed, or adapted from the literature, and were used to investigate the properties of some preparations supplied for soaking, bating and unhairing. The relationships between activities of particular preparations of different origin were found to be extremely different. Albumin, elastin and soft keratin were sensitive to the action of preparations whereas globulin was partly resistant and hard keratin completely resistant. In the unhairing process the total removal of elastin and globular proteins seemed probable. However, in a normal bating process only part of the elastin and globular proteins could be degraded. The activities of preparations of different origin on casein which is usually used as a substrate in standard methods were not found to correlate with their abilities in bating or unhairing. The unhairing ability of preparations was correlated with activity on albumin and the bating ability with activity on elastin. The possible influence of enzyme preparations on some attributes of leather was partly considered.