survey of lectins in native plant seeds

ABSTRACT

Lectins are a class of proteins which display a polyvalent affinity for oligosaccharides. Plant lectins are plentiful particularly in seeds, plant lectins have multiple roles particularly to act as recognition molecules.In the present study we tested 74 native plant seeds collected from different areas of Iran. For preparation of extract, we used saturated phosphate buffer solution with pH equal to seven. We followed an easy and reliable method of microhemagglutination assay and used the human red blood cells [ABO system], as well as assay mice, rat, and rabbit red blood cells. From 74 plant extracts, 26 samples have haemagglutination activity, 6 samples have haemolytic activity, and 42 extracts have no activity. From 26 samples that have haemagglutination activity, 9 samples were not found in the literature and from 6 samples that have haemolytic activity, 5 samples were not found in the literature. From the present study we conclude that we have a variety of plant seeds with different characteristics, some of them have haemagglutination activity and others have haemolytic activity which are comparable to other research results. Further study is required to find specific lectins in our indigenous plants species. Lectins are a valuable pharmacological tool, being adjuvant and antigen carrier, used for therapy of some diseases and find use as tumor markers