Not crazy to me. I asked my husband the same question. The enzymes in detergent are modified for alkaline conditions. Digestive enzymes thrive in an acidic environment - stomach acids. Great minds think alike!

Meat tenderizer is made from papaya. Papain I think? Amalyse is used in brewing. It's on my crazy list to make a batch of less than 0 fat soap and try mixing with enzymes. I saw rpsinfoman mentioned KOH was used as a pretreater in dry cleaning. That's the lye used in liquid soaps. Maybe a liquid version :).

So do you think there would be any benefit to crushing a few of the tablets and using it either in a load of laundry or as a stain pretreater.. I did see somewhere online someone crushed a few and made a paste with water for ring around the collar.

As a pretreater and left to sit for a bit or added to soak water, why not? It shouldn't take much as the enzymes will multiply until their food source is gone. Detergent and additives are alkaline and would likely kill the enzymes too fast. Amalyse breaks down starches, protease and papain protein. Usually the digestive enzymes are in capsules so just pull apart. Maybe try soaking with the enzymes and wash with an enzyme free detergent?

If you don't have anything on hand I would guess that meat tenderizer would be the least expensive enzyme to play with. Just added it to my grocery list :).

I have wondered if meat tenderizer being brownish will dye fabrics??? Do you think a neutral detergent would work with the capsule? ? I sm feeling CRAZY. LOL

For what it's worth though, once you start adding Enzymes to anything.. they become very unstable. This is why many detergents contain stabilizers and buffering agents.

It'd work great for spot-treating, and tossing in during a soak... but I probably wouldn't try to make the next Tide or Persil. The enzymes would probably die off very quickly without the precise formulating.

Mamapinky, you missed your calling, chemistry, LOL!!!

Mama - unseasoned meat tenderizer should be white. You don't need a stabilizer because you'd be using the enzymes fresh not trying to store them. Now to admit to some of my crazy.. I've made enzymes with citrus peels, sugar and yeast. Problem is there's a short window between enzymes and alcohol though I did use the resulting alcohol. I was suprised it didn't turn into vinegar but that's a whole different process I now know. I got crazy and made some vinegar too to compare. My son finds this stuff interesting too so I have back up :). I'm a huge fan of experiments. Today I whipped up some tinted moisturizer, tomorrow who knows... Things are never as complicated as we make them and worst outcome is you rewash a load of laundry.

Mitch all enzymes become unstable once activated. They multiply, mutate and die. There's a lot going on in that there washer. The stabilizers are to keep them viable but inactive on the shelf or the containers would explode.

Amylase.. now my beer brewing and laundry obsessions collide! I know it prefers a slightly acidic environment..around 5.2 is ideal for brewing..it comes from the barley, breaking down the starches to fermentable sugars. It's also in saliva..they make an alcoholic beverage, in I believe Peru, where women chew on corn (which doesn't have the enzyme) and then the spit is fermented.. oddly enough women supposedly have more of the enzyme in their saliva than men. Also interesting that it works in higher pH for laundry use.. Also it takes about an hour to fully work when mashing for beer..

The enzymes used in detergent are modified to survive in alkaline environments. Interesting about the low tech approach to brew corn alcohol.