Snake venoms are cocktails comprising combinations of different proteins, peptides, enzymes and toxins. Snake toxins have diverse characteristics having different molecular configuration, structure and mode of action. Many toxins derived from snake venom have distinct pharmacological activities. Venom from Bungarus fasciatus (commonly known as banded krait) is a species of elapid snake found on...

A nontoxic phospholipase A2 was purified from the venom of Indian krait (Bungarus caeruleus) by a four-step procedure involving electrophoresis, gel filtration and ion-exchange chromatography. The recovery of the enzyme activity was 37% and the purified preparation was 38 times as active as the crude venom. The purified enzyme had a molecular weight of 12,500 and the optimum pH of 7.2. The enzy...

This study analyses venom from the elapid krait snake Bungarus sindanus, which contains a high level of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. The enzyme showed optimum activity at alkaline pH (8.5) and 45°C. Krait venom AChE was inhibited by substrate. Inhibition was significantly reduced by using a high ionic strength buffer; low ionic strength buffer (10 mM PO4 pH 7.5) inhibited the enzyme by...

Serum Anti Ular Bisa (SABU) is the only snake antivenom produced locally in Indonesia; however, its effectiveness has not been rigorously evaluated. This study aimed to assess the protein composition and neutralization efficacy of SABU. SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, size-exclusion liquid chromatography and shotgun proteomics revealed that SABU consists of F(ab')2 but a significant amo...

The genus Laticauda (Reptilia: Elapidae), commonly known as sea kraits, comprises eight species of marine amphibious snakes distributed along the shores of the Western Pacific Ocean and the Eastern Indian Ocean. We review the information available on the geographic range of sea kraits and analyze their distribution patterns. Generally, we found that south and south-west of Japan, Philippines Ar...

The Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus) shares a distribution range with many other ‘phenotypically-similar’ kraits across the Indian subcontinent. Despite several reports of fatal envenomings by Bungarus species, commercial antivenoms are only manufactured against B. caeruleus. It is, therefore, imperative to understand genetically distinct lineages kraits, compositional differences in their ven...