Biomolecule–metal interactions: Applications in extraction and separation techniques

We have isolated and characterized an alkaloid, piperine and a protein arachin, from black pepper and groundnut respectively. Interactions of these compounds with various metal ions in trace scale from different domains of the periodic table were studied using radiometric method. It is revealed that piperine has high selectivity and specificity towards gold. The protein arachin shows high specificity towards mercury only. The high selectivity of these two bioreagents for the specific metal ions Au and Hg show that the bioreagents have considerable potential to replace the synthetic chemicals and sometime they are superior to synthetic one.