The founding member of the lanthipeptide family, nisin, is a lantibiotic that has been used to prevent the growth of food-born pathogens for over 40 years.
22.
He said to isolate the protein, " we extract nisin from Lactococcus lactis, cook it up in fermentation, and change the molecules slightly to manipulate it ."
23.
In addition, winemakers can use chemical and biological inhibitors such as lysozyme, nisin, dimethyl dicarbonate ( Velcorin ), and fumaric acid, though some ( like Verlcorin ) are restricted in winemaking countries outside the United States.
24.
Lanthionines have also been found in bacterial cell walls and are the components of a group of gene-encoded peptide antibiotics called lantibiotics, which includes nisin ( a food preservative ), subtilin, epidermin ( effective against staphylococcus and streptococcus ), and ancovenin ( an enzyme inhibitor ).
25.
In spite of these promising advantages, nisin is the only bacteriocin generally recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration and is currently used as a food preservative in several countries . This limitation in bacteriocins availability in the market as preservatives and antimicrobials can be attributed to multiple factors, including : ( i ) the high cost of their commercial production; ( ii ) the loss of their activity by proteolytic enzymes; ( iii ) their unfavorable interactions with other food constituents, which decreases the availability and necessitates a huge amount of the peptide to be added; ( iv ) the alterations of the chemical and physical properties of these compounds during the various food-processing stages; ( v ) the low yield of these compounds due to ineffective recovery by traditional purification methods; and ( vi ) the narrow spectrum of activity observed for most of the tested bacteriocins against pathogenic bacteria.
