ESTIMATION OF PROTEINS IN PLANTS OF FORENSIC SIGNIFICANCE (RICINUS COMMUNIS AND CANNABIS SATIVA) BY UV-SPECTROPHOTOMETRY AND GEL ELECTROPHORESIS METHOD

Proteins play a significant role in living beings. In animals, where proteins are involved in the body built, the formation of tissues, organs, etc., in plants, proteins regulate the respiration, photosynthesis, growth, and reproduction. There are some proteins which are specific to the plant or a particular species of plant. Proteomics is a multidisciplinary branch of science that deals with the study of proteins. The paper discusses some important aspect related to estimation and identification of proteins. Protein was estimated in two plants of forensic importance, i.e., Ricinus communis and Cannabis sativa seeds by Ultra Violet (UV) spectrophotometry followed by isolation and characterization of proteins by Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS PAGE) method. A UV spectrum was taken at 520 nanometers (nm), and the protein was quantified by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. SDS-PAGE was performed according to Laemmli et al. High concentration of protein was found by UV spectrophotometry at 520 nm. SDS-PAGE separated the proteins according to their molecular weight ranging in size from 45 kiloDalton (kDa) to approximately 15kDa and 45kDa to 10kDa for Ricinus communis and Cannabis sativa respectively. Thus, we found in our study that both of the techniques used, i.e. UV spectrophotometry and SDS PAGE, proved to be indispensable in studying plant proteins and the techniques can be of great help to forensic investigators and to other laboratories concerned in dealing with plants and proteomics.