Plant latex as vegetable source for milk clotting enzymes and their use in cheese preparation

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.