The value of many companies mainly represents the so-called “intangible assets” or, rather, intellectual property rights, such as the brand. Patents protect every invention and its economic value, ensuring non-replicability by other companies, including leading competitors. Most formulae of Fra-Ber products have been added with enzymes, a technology that Fra-Ber has chosen to protect and patent. This is why all the products added with enzymes are patented according to patent application No. MI2013A000782 filed and granted on 05-15-2013. This patent grants us an exclusive scope for the use of at least one enzyme and/or active micro-organism in detergent and care solutions for vehicles selected from among cars, trucks, lorries, and buses.

Enzymes are protein molecules that naturally occur in all living cells and accelerate a biochemical reaction. Enzymes are living organisms and naturally break up dirty substances, thereby making them easier to remove during the washing stage. In fact, various detergents contain enzymes to speed up the degradation process of protein, lipids and carbohydrates that form stains. Since most dirt stains on fabrics are of natural origin, enzymes have been added in detergent formulations. This has lead to an increase in the ability of detergents to remove stains.
The enzymes present in detergents are divided into:

Cellulase: Used to degrade cellulose into simple sugars.
Amylase: Used for washing with particularly resistant stains of starch and derivatives.
Lipase: Used to optimise the removal of various types of oily and greasy stains.
Protease: Enable the removal of various proteins.

Because enzymes are highly specific in the reactions they catalyse, an abundant supply of enzymes must be present in cells to carry out all the different chemical transformations required. Most enzymes help break down large molecules into smaller ones and release energy from their substrates. To date, scientists have identified over 10,000 different enzymes. Because there are so many, a logical method of nomenclature has been developed to ensure that each one can be clearly defined and identified. Although enzymes are usually identified using short trivial names, they also have longer systematic names. Furthermore, each type of enzyme has a four-part classification number (EC number) based on the standard enzyme nomenclature system maintained by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Most enzymes catalyse the transfer of electrons, atoms or functional groups. And depending on the types of reactions catalysed, they are divided into six main classes, which in turn are split into groups and subclasses. For example, the enzyme that catalyses the conversion of milk sugar (lactose) to galactose and glucose has the trivial name lactase, the systematic name beta- D-galactoside galactohydrolase, and the classification number EC 3.2.1.23.
Despite significant effort focused on research of the right molecules of enzymes for each specific application, formulation plays an important role in the end use and success of the product. A new enzymatic molecule with excellent performance can fail in the market if the enzyme is unstable during transport and storage. The right formulation can eliminate these defects. Therefore, the importance of obtaining the right formula must not be underestimated. And this is why Fra-Ber, as a result of its knowledge in chemical products, can add enzymes to formulations without any problems.

Since the 1960s, enzymes have been a key ingredient of detergents. Beneficial microorganisms penetrate deep into the pores of surfaces to degrade a wide range of embedded organic residues for improved cleaning performance. Various residues, such as oil, grease and sugary stains, collect in the microscopic indentations and fissures of hard surfaces, making them difficult to completely remove. The formulations with added enzymes offer instant cleaning by removing surface residues.
Enzymes degrade stains into smaller, more water-soluble parts that can be removed more easily during washing. What’s more, they can also be effective in smaller doses (compacting): weight-efficiency, meaning that a smaller quantity of enzymes can be used to achieve deep cleaning compared to results obtained with other ingredients. In addition, one enzyme molecule can act repeatedly on the substrate molecules (e.g. soil), so a small amount of enzyme added to a detergent can ensure a major cleaning benefit for the consumer. This catalytic property gives enzymes a crucial role in compacted and concentrated detergents. An external laboratory also carried out tests during the development process of the Evoenzymes line in order to check the activity of the enzymes through the cleansing power using a Launder-Ometer and an evaluation of the enzymatic activity by means of a contact test with specific substrates.

If on the one hand there are no problems with regard to the environment, on the other, the topic is widely discussed in scientific literature with reference to the danger of enzymes for man. Specifically, the three European associations active in the sector, namely Aise, Cefic, and Cleanright, state that enzymes:

ARE NOT TOXIC IF SWALLOWED
ARE EASILY BIODEGRADABLE
ARE NOT A HAZARD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

With reference to the potential allergic danger for mankind, it is also stated that:
“Yes. Current use of enzymes in products for laundry and cleaning do not pose a threat to consumers. The enzymes are not toxic if swallowed, they are easily biodegradable and do not pose a threat to the environment. Many proteins can cause allergies in the event of repeated inhalation. Pollen, mites, animal hair and flour are very well known inhaler allergens. Since they are proteins, enzymes are also potential inhaler allergens. However, allergies from enzymes are a professional risk for those who work in factories that handle large amounts of enzymes and who can be exposed to significant concentrations. Several years of experience and numerous studies have shown that enzymes in detergents do not represent an allergic danger to consumers. There is nothing to indicate that enzymes can cause skin sensitisation (allergic contact dermatitis), a different form of allergy associated with low molecular weight substances.”

Take into consideration that there are many international companies that have used enzymes in their formulations, affirming and finding excellent advantages in their application.
In 2014, Henkel launched one of its most well-known products, Dixan, on the market with the new ColdEnzyme technology and declared:
“… Dixan has been renewed as a result of the ColdEnzyme technology. This new patented formula that contains an exclusive mixture of enzymes, which are active at just 20 degrees, guarantees perfect washing performance, even on the most stubborn stains that usually require high temperatures. Impeccably clean, even at low temperatures.”

Procter&Gamble, manufacturing company of the most famous brands, such as Dash, Fairy, Lenor, Viakal and Swiffer, states:
“These proteins are excellent to eliminate stains and food residues. Each enzyme reacts on a specific stain. This is why detergents contain several types.”

Green chemistry was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018. The Swiss Academy awarded the discovery of the ‘directed evolution’ of enzymes as a basis of vital chemical reactions, and the many positive effects accompanying it regarding environmentally friendly technologies and processes of transformation. The American scientists, Frances H. Arnold and George P. Smith, and British scientist Gregory P. Winter, were awarded the prize.
The existence and continuation of life on our planet have been made possible by evolution, which, as a result of a good percentage of randomness has gradually solved many chemical problems. All living organisms are able to produce energy from what surrounds them in their environment, which in turn create other chemical compounds that are useful for their existence.
The chemistry of life is described and programmed in our genes and is thereby transmitted from one generation to the next. Random mutations during transmission cause certain things to change: almost always the result is weaker and more disadvantaged organisms, other times there are improvements that lead some specimens of a generation to prevail.
Arnold, Smith and Winter have changed biochemistry by applying the same principles of evolution, but in a lab.
Frances Arnold is 62, is American and started working with DNA technologies in the 80s. His idea was simple but at the same time revolutionary and difficult to create: instead of producing medicines, objects and other chemical products through traditional chemistry – by using solvents, heavy metals, acids and other pollutants – we use the tools that nature already uses in its immense chemical lab, enzymes. Creating new ones, copying existing ones, it would have been possible to do, Arnold speculated.
After years of failed lab tests where he tried to combine the basis of enzymes (amino acids) together to create new ones, Arnold came to the conclusion that he had to follow a different path.
He resumed the work done up to then with subtlisine, an enzyme that catalyses (meaning it promotes and accelerates) chemical reactions in water-based solutions, to make it do the same in an organic solvent such as dimethylformamide (DMF). He noticed certain mutations (random changes) in the genetic code of the enzyme and then inserted them into bacteria so that they could produce thousands of variants of subtlisine. It was now a matter of understanding which of these variants were more suitable to work in DMF.
Fully aware that subtlisine breaks down casein (milk protein), he selected variants of the enzyme that performed this task best in a milk solution and DMF. The enzymes selected were the basis to produce new ones with further variations, which proved to be more effective in DMF. He did the same thing with a third generation, directing the enzyme’s evolution towards a specific task, consequently “direct evolution”.
Other researchers after Arnold have worked on this system obtaining very important results to make the direct evolution more controllable in order to obtain even more satisfactory results with the selection process. Frances Arnold was a pioneer of this technique, which today makes it possible to create customised enzymes and that do not exist in nature, which are useful to produce medicines and new materials.