Calotropis procera (Sodom apple)––a potential material for enzyme purification

A simple method based on precipitation with Calotropis procera latex was developed for the purification of crude enzyme from fermentation broth. C. procera latex (10−2 dilution) clarified and concentrated the crude amylase of Aspergillus oryzae 4-fold with 97% recovery of the initial amylase activity in the filtrate in a single step operation. The latex was stable at pH 4.5 and there was no significant difference (P 0.05) in the purification potential of the latex at 4 and 28 °C. This method could prove useful to developing economies of the tropics where ambient temperature is around 28 °C.