The Worthington Product Line
Enzymes are still the major product of Worthington. Technically speaking, Worthington does not actually make enzymes: we extract them from various animal and plant tissues and various microbial sources such as bacteria, fungi, and molds. A starting material for a particular enzyme is selected according to the prevalence of that enzyme in the material. For example an enzyme whose function involves making muscles work is going to be found primarily in muscle tissue, so the starting material may be rabbit muscle or perhaps pig heart; an enzyme involved in fermentation can best be found in a yeast. Some of the animal tissues used at Worthington include beef pancreas, electric eel tissue, hog kidney, cow eyes, horse liver, rabbit muscle, beef liver, pig heart, horse blood, and calf intestine. Various proteins are also extracted from horseradish roots, sweet potatoes, almonds, and pokeweed. Some products are isolated from the bacteria E. coli, several species of Clostridia, and various other bacteria. Yeast, mushrooms, whole milk, and eggs are also used.

The most important feature of each of our products is that it functions just as it would in the living cells from which it was extracted. The size and complexity of protein molecules make this difficult, and Worthington's ability to consistently produce enzymes and other proteins in their natural condition is the key to the company's continuing success.

Manufacturing
The most fundamental consideration is that anything which is detrimental to the life of the cells with which we are working is also bad for the product we are trying to extract from those cells. Many isolation procedures we use rely on techniques which alter the solubility of proteins. Differences in solubility among different proteins makes it possible to separate proteins from one another through centrifugation and filtering: a method known as fractionating. Some of these procedures rely heavily on adjusting salt concentrations as a way of changing protein solubility without damaging the molecules; consequently, most of the waste generated consists of meat scraps, cell debris, fats, and various non-toxic salts such as sodium chloride and ammonium sulfate. The toxic compounds often associated with the chemical industry are precisely those substances we must avoid like lead, mercury, and many of the organic compounds used for plastics and petroleum products.

There are several solvents we do use for defatting and for breaking open certain kinds of cells. These solvents include acetone, ether, chloroform, toluene, various alcohols, and gasoline. When we use any of these solvents, we return all of the spent solvent to its original container. A container of used solvent is labeled, sealed, and stored in an isolated area for a maximum of 90 days. Worthington has its waste removed by a licensed waste removal company, and a complete paper trail is maintained so that every batch of every chemical can be traced from its manufacturer to it final disposal site.