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According to this paper:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5429307/#!po=13.1579

"β-Galactosidase is found in bacteria, fungi, and yeasts. In plants, it is mainly found in almonds, peaches, apples, and apricots."

Supposedly, β-Galactosidase is a lactase enzyme that can break down lactose. Could this mean that, say, keeping almonds or apples or peaches or apricots overnight in milk could reduce the lactose content of milk?

As far as I've read about different types of lactase enzymes, they can have different optimal temperature and pH ranges for optimal activity. I tried digging more into temperature and pH ranges for the lactase enzymes found in the above four foods (assuming they are capable of breaking down lactose in milk) but could not find any further references or studies.

Luciano
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The Testosterone Fanatic
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1 Answers1

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Following references in that article brought me to Sources of b-galactosidase and its applications in food industry (Saqib 2017) which seems to confirm their presence, though not if they are in nutritionally significant amounts:

Plants

b-Galactosidases are also widely distributed in plants where they play roles by contributing to plant growth, lactose hydrolysis, and fruit ripening. This enzyme is reported to involve in ripening of persimmons by decreasing the galactosyl content of cell wall, which facilitates the fruit-ripening process. Galactosidases from papaya source cause cell wall hydrolysis and conse- quently softening of the fruit during the ripening process. Moreover, b-galactosidase activity has also been reported in cell wall of strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) where the fruit softens due to the release of free sugars during the ripening process. Moreover, Smith and Gross (2000) identified a family of seven b-galactosidases from tomato during the fruit-ripening process. Furthermore, softening- related b-galactosidases have been purified from the fruits of tomato, apple, muskmelon, avocado, kiwifruit, coffee, mango, and Japanese pear plants (Seddigh and Darabi 2014).

The two referenced papers just confirm the genes are present in multiple plant species, there is no indication of the levels of activity that can be got from such plant products.

User65535
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