Physico-Chemical Properties of Purified Carboxylesterase from the Seeds of Tamarindus indica

The present work is focus on physical and chemical properties of purified Carboxylesterase using the Seeds of Tamarindus Indica.The esterases are extracted from the germinating tamarind seeds using 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7 and purified. The Km with α-naphthyl acetate, β-naphthyl acetate and α-naphthyl butyrate as the substrates is 28.6 μM, 22.2 μM and 26.7 μM respectively. The Vmax for the same substrates is 7.1 x 10-3 µmole/min, 7.41 x 10-3 µmole/min and 8.00 x 10-3 µmole/min respectively. The enzymes optimally active at pH 7.0 and are stable between pH 5.0 to 8.0. The optimum temperature of esterase activity is 40˚C. The molecular weight of 27.5 kD as determined by SDS-PAGE, both in the presence and absence of β-mercaptothanol and is in close agreement with the molecular weight determined by gel-filtration on Sephadex G-100 (26.9 kD).