Purification and characterisation of polyphenol oxidase from leaves of Cleome gynandra L.

A polyphenol oxidase was purified and characterised from leaves of the common spiderflower. Purification sequentially with ammonium sulphate, dialysis, DEAE-Sepharose ion-exchange chromatography and Sephadex G-75 gel filtration chromatography resulted in 37.8-fold enrichment in the specific activity and 44.3% recovery of the total activity. Purified PPO is a monomeric protein of 52.6 kDa revealed by Coomassie and active staining and Western blot. It was optimally active at pH 8.0 and 60 degrees C. and stable from pH 3.0 to 9.0 and below 60 degrees C. It displayed enzymatic activity towards monophenols, diphenols and triphenols, especially towards diphenols, and substrate specificity towards methylated and methoxylated substrates. Its activity was slightly increased by 0.1% SDS, heavily inhibited by Hg2+ and Pb2+, and completely inhibited by 1.0 mM of ascorbic acid, L-cysteine, beta-mercaptoethanol, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate and thiourea, and by 10 mM of dithioerythritol, sodium metabisulphite and sodium sulphite. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.