INHIBITION STUDIES ON BURDOCK POLYPHENYL OXIDASE (PPO) ACTIVITY

The inhibitory effect of 4-hexylresorcinol (HR), ascorbic acid (AA), citric acid (CA), and bisulfites on polyphenol oxidase (PPO) of burdock roots was studied. HR was an effective inhibitor at low concentrations used in this study for crude PPO from root slices. A binary mixture of HR and AA at 1.0% concentration for 5 min achieved more than 90% inhibition of crude PPO. AA also showed high antibrowning activity for the purified PPO comparable to that of bisulfites, whereas its activity was much lower than that of HR in the crude extract. The inhibitory effect of the combined use of inhibitors was overall in the decreasing order of HR+AA, HR+CA and AA+CA, irrespective of the crude PPO or the purified PPO from burdock slices.