8. Screening of plant lattices for novel plant latex cysteine protease

Taking into consideration, the increasing demand for proteases and the need for economical production of commercially useful industrial proteases from novel sources. A number of plant lattices belonging to different plant families have been collected in and around Visakhapatnam and screened for protease activity. Their activities were assayed immediately and were stored in ice for further investigations. A novel plant latex cysteine protease namely Vallaris solanacea was identified in Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam which showed maximum protease activity. Preliminary studies on protease activity from the latex of Vallaris solanacea were carried out. The protease was purified and characterized. Specificity studies towards synthetic peptide and ester substrates by the protease purified solanain.
