Purification and Characterization of a Proteolytic Enzyme from Fig Latex

Ficin is an important component of plants in Ficus family such as fig latex. It is of special significance in medicine and industry because it exhibits activity throughout a wide range of temperature and pH values. In this work, we purified a component of ficin from the latex homogeneity of Shandong fig trees, and the properties of the purified ficin were studied. The current findings revealed that heavy metal ions were able to inhibit ficin, while DTT, L-cysteine, and β-ME were found to promote ficin activity. It was also observed that the half life of ficin at 65 °C was longer than 1 h and the Michaelis constant(Km) for casein hydrolyzation was determined to be 1.56 mg/mL. Our study shows that this purified ficin is a cysteine protease.