Re: Can catalase be extracted and put into pills?

Your thinking is very perceptive – and you correctly raise the crucial 
question of the fate of enzymes taken as an oral supplement.  The idea of 
taking enzymes in a pill form is not new. 

Many people are lactose intolerant, and experience digestive problems when 
they ingest milk or other dairy products that contain the sugar lactose.  
This condition arises because their body produces little or no lactase, the 
enzyme that breaks down lactose.  These people can consume dairy products 
with minimal or no digestive problems if they take a supplement of the 
enzyme with the dairy product.  There are several brands of this product, 
sold under names such as lactaid, dairy-eez, and others.  The capsule 
contains the enzyme lactase along with a binder (inert ingredients that 
dissolve after ingestion).  To be effective, the capsule must be taken with 
the dairy product, not before.  This is because enzymes are proteins, and 
proteins are decomposed (broken up into their constituent amino acids) 
during the normal digestive process.  When lactase is taken at the same time 
the dairy product is consumed, it survives long enough to aid in digestion 
of lactose.  However the next time this person wants to indulge in ice 
cream, another capsule must be taken because the enzyme does not survive for 
long.

The problem with orally taking catalase in pill form, as your question 
indicates you already suspect, is that catalase does not act in the 
digestive system but in cells elsewhere in the body.  Thus it would need to 
not only survive the digestive process but also be transported to where it 
needs to be.  Unfortunately there are no transport systems in our bodies 
that recognize an enzyme and transport it to where it is supposed to be.  
Even if it were injected into the bloodstream instead of taken orally, only 
a negligible amount of the enzyme would find its way to the specific organ 
cells where it was needed – and then the question arises of transport into 
the cells, which is another problem.