Glyoxysomes isolated from castor bean (Ricinus communis L. var. zanzibariensis) endosperm have been stained by the cytochemical diaminobenzidine reaction. The reaction product obtained by preincubation with 3,3'-diaminobenzidine and incubation with the reagent and H(2)O(2) is distributed uniformly throughout the matrix of the organelles. Ricinosomes or dilated cisternae may be completely absent...

In 2009 a National Security Science and Technology grant was awarded to the Human Protection and Performance Division for the investigation of several forensic aspects of the castor bean plant Ricinus communis. A major focus of this grant was to understand the chemical composition of the seeds, and to ascertain if these differences could be used for provenance classification. This technical rep...

Proplastids from developing castor bean (Ricinus communis) endosperm have a pyruvate kinase activity which is extremely unstable on isolation from the organelle. It can be stabilized by 20 mm 2-mercaptoethanol in 20% ethylene glycol. In contrast the soluble pyruvate kinase is stable at 60 C for 10 minutes. The two activities have different pH optima. The soluble and the proplastid activities ar...

The well characterized castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) allergens were identified as the low molecular weight albumin storage proteins in the matrix of the protein bodies in the endosperm. The methods of identification involved molecular weight estimation, amino acid composition, stability at 100 degrees C, solubility in various solvents, gel electrophoresis, and immunological techniques. The ...

Structures of two crystal forms of the dimeric acidic winged bean agglutinin (WBAII) complexed with methyl-alpha-D-galactose have been determined at 3.0 A and 3.3 A resolution. The subunit structure and dimerisation of the lectin are similar to those of the basic lectin from winged bean (WBAI) and the lectin from Erythrina corallodendron (EcorL). The conformation of a loop and its orientation w...

The ability of the jack bean lectin concanavalin A (ConA) to bind seven membered ring (septanose) monosaccharides has been investigated by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR spectroscopy.