Soluble and alginate immobilized urease was utilized for detection and quantitation of mercury in aqueous samples. Urease from the seeds of pumpkin, being a vegetable waste, was extracted and purified to apparent homogeneity (sp. activity 353U/mg protein; A280/A260=1.12) by heat treatment at 48±0.1°C and gel filtration through Sephadex G-200. Homogeneous enzyme preparation was immobilized in 3.5% alginate leading to 86% immobilization, no leaching of enzyme was found over a period of 15 days at 4°C. Urease catalyzed urea hydrolysis by soluble and immobilized enzyme revealed a clear dependence on the concentration of Hg2+. Inhibition caused by Hg2+ was non-competitive (Ki=1.2×10−1μM for soluble and 1.46×10−1μM for alginate immobilized urease.). Time-dependent inhibition both in presence and in absence of Hg2+ ion revealed a biphasic inhibition in activity. For optimization of this process response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized where two-level-two-full factorial (22) central composite design (CCD) has been employed. The regression equation and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were obtained using MINITAB® 15 software. Predicted values thus obtained were closed to experimental value indicating suitability of the model. 3D response surface plot, iso-response contour plot and process optimization curve were helpful to predict the results by performing only limited set of experiments.