Abstract
Bromelain is a general name for a family of sulfhydryl-containing, proteolytic enzymes obtained from Ananas comosus, the pineapple plant. Bromelain’s primary component is a sulfhydryl proteolytic fraction. Bromelain also contains a peroxidase, acid phosphatase, several protease inhibitors, and organicallybound calcium. It appears a great deal of the physiological activity of bromelain cannot be accounted for by its proteolytic fraction and that the beneficial effects of bromelain are due to multiple factors, not to one single, isolated factor.