Efficient Extraction of the RuBisCO Enzyme from Spinach Leaves Using Aqueous Solutions of Biocompatible Ionic Liquids

Ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) is the most abundant protein on planet, being present in plants, algae and various species of bacteria, with application pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic food industries. However, current extraction methods RuBisCO do not allow high yields extraction. Therefore, development an efficient selective RuBisCOs’ method required. In this work, aqueous solutions biocompatible ionic liquids (ILs), i.e., ILs derived from choline analogues glycine-betaine, were applied RuBisCO’s spinach leaves. Three commercial imidazolium-based also investigated for comparison purposes. To optimize conditions, response surface methodology was applied. Under optimum 10.92 10.57 mg RuBisCO/g biomass obtained cholinium acetate ([Ch][Ac]) chloride ([Ch]Cl), respectively. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy results show that secondary structure better preserved IL when compared to commonly used solvent. The indicate cholinium-based are a promising viable alternative vegetable biomass.