@Hanzell
Chemistry for the day: Pineapples eat you back
As we ate pineapples as a snack, one of my sisters kept complaining how her tongue hurt so much after eating pineapples so being as the nerd I am, I went on and explained why that happened and why that didn't happen when we ate the canned ones or in juices. I actually consider pineapples as hardcore fruits because they "eat you back" as we jokingly say back in the laboratory. But in reality, there's this specific enzyme inside pineapples that degrade or somewhat breaks down proteins found on meat, thus why eating fresh pineapples can give you cuts on your tongue. That enzyme is called bromelein!
Anyways, bromelain isn't just used to attack tongues, it also has its benefits too **Cooking** Since bromelain breaks down collegen (the protein chains in your muscles), it is often used as a marinate and as a meat tenderizer for a lot of recipes and a lot of cuisines
As seen in this image, there's your collagen (your protein strands that give your muscles form), when bromelain comes into play, those strands break down into peptides which are much smaller chains and if left there long enough, can break them down into amino acids, which is the basic unit of your proteins. This part actually explains what happens with your poor tongue. **Exfoliation** So we know that it breaks down proteins, so it would make sense to tell you that people use pineapples for exfoliation. In the medical field, there are doctors that give bromelain creams or oils as treatments for burns and or for infections. Why? because it can remove the burnt tissues, which are essentially proteins to begin with. Plus it also has an antimicrobial property so it can at least keep bacteria, fungi and some viruses from getting you infected. **Helps with metabolism problems** Now I'm telling you that this enzyme doesn't just break down proteins, but it also helps your body absorb nutrients better, thus giving you better metabolism (because metabolism is not just how you break down food but also how it stores and absorbs the nutrients you consume). How is that, well there are studies shown that bromelain can improve your body's absorption of certain medication like anti coagulants (aspirin and ibuprofen applies here), your antibiotics, and even sedatives It also helps with osteoarthritis and inflammatory pain but then it also treats sinusitis because it reduces swelling in the muscles. In a lot of studies, it's also used in various cancer cell targeting researches because it shows specificity in reacting with just those cells, but those are still in vivo (outside the body study), I'm not sure if the same specificity will apply for in vitro studies (inside the body).
This was much shorter than I had hoped for... but I hoped you learned something new today! I'm gonna put a link here if you want to check out a review of more things bromelain can offer ^-^ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3529416/
33 comments
IT was compact and easy to understand ...WOW...
I'm glad you enjoyed that ^-^ eat more pineapples to make you healthy!
My fav 😍 Thanks for sharing. I've learned something today hehe
Yes! You learned how hardcore pineapples are 😁😁😁
Hahaha yeah. I even challenge myself to eat a whole pineapple in one meal hahaha it really hurts so I managed to half of it hahaha
I eat the mini ones found in a province in my country, those i can eat whole because the small ones don't have such high doses of bromelain in them unlike the bigger ones
Ow they differ in size too. Amazing!
Yeah! The ones that grow in that province were really small, kind of a bit bigger than a carabao mango?
Yeah, I've seen one of those. We also have it here hehe
Oh, maybe you're from the Philippines too?
Yes I am hahaha Albay hehe
Ohh i eat that in tagaytay! There's so many pineapple farms there
Woaahh nice ❤
Well explained. Actually, I have used bromelain in cancer treatments, back in time when I worked with cancer. It is also useful against parasites. Just like papain, an enzyme found in papaya.
I saw a lot of papers on papain when i was interested in anticancer studies. Oh! Did you ever use it internally? Like when it gets ingested? Because I keep thinking that even with the capsule forms, they would still be degraded and can't live up to the full potential of the enzyme alone. I mean, there were studies but those were external still
No, I was talking bout bromelain for cancer. Perhaps there is a potential for papain as well, but that is still unclear. My mentioning of papain was for parasites. You'll see that if you read again the two last sentences in my comment above.
But there were a few papers that came out about studying papain for anticancer properties. And I was quite curious about bromelain being used internally, like if ingested because i see pills and encapsulated oils for trial studies but then i never saw how the enzyme integrity was affected when it gets in the stomach, like.. as just a pure oil
Yes, there are studies about papain and cancer, but I have not seen any conclusive results yet. Bromelain can be injected, then you avoid the degradation taking place in digestion.
Thanks for sharing
You're very welcome! Hope you enjoyed this
I did.. awesome
Smiles thanks for sharing dear at first I was really startled at the tittle. I learnt a lot today thank you
Thank you so much for appreciating this! So now you have to eat more pineapples
Don't really like pineapples that much but I will try I prefer bananas more
Well bananas are great too, they're as nutritious as any fruut with lesser the sugar and a better taste
This is one awesome article. Thank you so much for sharing
Aww well thank you so much for dropping by
There are some pineapple that are not itchy in the tounge. But most of them yeah 😄 I will remember the word bromelain and I will surely tell my husband about that thingy hahaha. Thank you Hanzell!
Those are probably the baby pineapples and the small ones because the chemicals in those haven't spread enough nor matured enough to spread across the fruit. You go tell your husband to eat more fresh pineapples too. Could help in the bedroom too 😂
So if the pineapples are not fresh its more possible that its itchy on the tounge?
No, because bromolein doesn't really live that long. If it gets exposed to air long enough, it actually degrades so it won't be itchy on your tounge anymore
parang baligtad sinabi ng asawa ko sakin 😄
I dunno? I think pag matanda na yung pineapple, not kapag hindi na fresh. Cuz not sure what fresh is used for here? Kakaharvest ba or yung nabuksan na? Kasi pag matanda na, yes, mas itchy pero pag binuksan yung di pagkafresh, di na yun itchy, that's why in cans and juices aren't itchy