Isolation and Characterization of Major Seed Storage Proteins: I. Fabaceae family found in Sindh Pakistan

Abstract

Seeds of nine medicinally important plants belonging to the family Fabaceae growing in Sindh, Pakistan (including ., Trigonella foenum-graecum L.,Tamarindus indica L, Posralea coryliflolia L,Sesbania aculeata L., Sesbania grndifolia L., Cassia occidentalis L, Cassia fistula L, Pithecellobium dulce Benth. and Acacia concinna L.) were subjected used for the analysis of four major seed storage protein.Proteins were extracted from the seed flour by sequential steps of extractions including water (albumin), 5.0 M NaCl (globulin), 70% ethanol (prolamin), and150.2M sodium phosphate buffer,Ph8.0 (glutelin). Quantitative amount was carry out by the dye binding method of Bradford which revealed wide variations in terms of their concentrations and total yields. As expected, albumin fraction was found to be the highest in all plant seeds of family Fabaceae where, P. dulci Benth contains the highest and T. indica L. the lowest (80% and 23%) respectively. Globulin with second dominant protein fraction may also vary from 3% (A. concinna) to 43% (T. foenum-graecam). Likewise, prolamin was found to be significantly higher in A. concinna (65%), C. fistula (37%) and P. corylifolia L (33%) while, the lowest of around 10% in T. foenum-graecam. On the other hand, a consistent pattern of 2 to 18% of glutelin concentrations were observed in all plants (with exception of T. indica L having 31%). Comparative SEC FPLC profiles of the four major seed storage proteins extracted from P.dulci Benth nicely complement our work and provided a single step strategy for the purification of complex, multimeric and high molecular mass seed storage proteins from plant for wide biotechnological applications.