Preparative isolation of the lectin jacalin by anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography

The lectin jacalin from Artocarpus integrifolia was purified to homogeneity in a single step by preparative anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Selection of the optimum chromatographic parameters in gradient elution allowed a rapid procedure to be obtained for the qualitative and quantitative isolation of the most important alpha- and alpha'-jacalin components. A recovery of 27-33% was obtained from a total soluble extract using a polyacrylate-DEAE HPLC column. The identities of the two isolated polypeptides were established by N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis and from the IgA1 binding lectin activity.