Rheological properties of milk coagulation by crude enzyme from  Hericium erinaceum

Abstract

　Hericium erinaceum is an edible mushroom, known as Lion's mane mushroom (Yamabushitake in Japanese). We prepared the crude enzyme from H. erinaceum and evaluated the rheological properties on the milk coagulation process and analyzed texture of the resultant curd with the enzyme. The crude enzyme from H. erinaceum could clot not only the low heat (LH) milk treated at 66℃ for 30 min but also the ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk at 130℃ for 2 sec. The temperature dependences of dynamic viscoelastic moduli indicated that the storage modulus and the loss modulus of the resultant curd of LH-milk with the crude enzyme from H. erinaceum was relatively lower than with chymosin. Moreover, RP-HPLC analyses revealed that the milk-clotting process by the action of the crude enzyme from H. erinaceum might not be dependent on the cleavage of κ-casein. Our data suggested that the crude enzyme from H. erinaceum might be utilized for the production of a new type of cheeses.