What happens if you hold a lot of meat tenderizer in your mouth, will it eventually break down tissue?

Question

Let's assume its just papain and not all the extra stuff like the salt and spices. It doesn't say much in the Wikipedia article.

Also I wonder if criminals have used this to get rid of evidence, like dead bodies, or if it can help destroy DNA (blood or semen), like how bleach does with semen. Unless it doesn't break up DNA strands, but just tissue structure.

I'm into science & forensics in general and a big fan of shows like the old Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series, House M.D., but also a huge fan of Horror, especially the reality based stuff like Traces of Death, and the Guinea Pig series.

Thanks!

I remember reading about the Jello thing in a book I have called "The Real Dope". So will the saliva in your mouth prevent the papain from working as far as it changing the pH? Will it not work on living tissue?...like say putting a dab of it on your arm? I'll make a prediciction and say that the skin will once again prevent it from reaching its activiation pH level? Just a guess. I suppose its the same reasoning such as people wondering why your jaw muscles never become bigger due to all the chewing we do when we eat...lol.

Answer 1

Papain, which is derived from a papya plant will digest protein. There is some in pineapple also. You can not use either of them fresh in jello, because it will digest the protein that jello is made from. When used on meat it works until the meat is cooked,then the enzyme is denatured. If eaten it would itself be digested in the stomach. Cheese was first discovered when people carried milk in a calfs stomach as a container and th enzymes digested the milk. There is history of bodies packed in barrels where the meat was digested off. Enzymes work slowly and at specific temperatures and pH. They are sometimes used in the lab to prepare bones, but a boiling acid bath is quicker. It was an old English custom to put a lamb or pig leg in a barrel of cide rin preparation for a long voyage at sea and it dissolved during the cruise.