E. González, A. Callejas, D. Seidl
Agricultural and Food Chemistry 27,912, 1979
Extracts of seeds of 12 legume specieswere tested for subtilisin inhibitor activity by a microelectrophoretic method. Activity was detected in garden beans, mung beans, jack beans, cow peas, broad beans, and chick peas. No inhibitor was detected in field peas, lentils, pigeon peas, soybeans, lupine, and wing beans.
Most legume seeds contain one or several inhibitors of trypsin and chymotrypsin which have been extensively studied (see Laskowski and Sealock, 1971). Inhibitors for other proteinases have been detected in some legume seeds but little is known about their distribution and chemical characteristics. A specific inhibitor for subtilisin was isolated recently from black garden beans and some of its chemical and physical properties have been described (Seidl et al., 1978a). It had been discovered by an electrophoretic screening method for protease inhibition. Inhibitory factors active on different proteolytic enzymes can be detected by this method (Seidl et al., 1978b),which has now been applied for screening different legume seed samples for the presence of subtilisin inhibitor activity.