Abstract:
Zingiberaceous plants are important natural herb in Thailand. Previously, the identification of zingiberaceous plants was mainly performed by their morphological origin. However, these methods were difficult to identify. The present study aimed to identify different species of zingiberaceous plants using a proteome approach by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and amino acid sequence by mass spectrometry. 2-DE gels of different zingiberaceous plant samples contain sufficient different protein spots to permit easy discrimination. These "marker protein" will be used to identify of each species. Many proteins in zingiberaceous plants are displayed in mass range 13.00-20.00 kDa and small acidic region on 2-DE gels. From amino acid sequence by tandem MS and amino acid sequence database searching, the amino acid sequence of common protein spot A23 is shown four-peptide sequence similar to partial amino acid residue of glutelin type-B2 [precursor].However, the experimental values of mass and pI were lower than theoretical values. Since glutelin type-B2 [precursor] is a six subunit (hexamer), protein spot A23 could be subunit of glutelin type-B2 [precursor]. Some parts of the amino acid sequence of two-peptide sequences from common protein spot D12 were matched to Mannose-specific lectin but mass and pI value was not matching. This protein could be a new protein in the same class of lectin. The amino acid sequences from protein spots Z1 and Z2 are similar to Class I heat shock protein. Crude proteins from zingiberaceous plants with Mg(NP-40) A exhibited potent hemagglutinating activity. Crude protein from Curcuma sp. (saligalinthong) exhibited strongest hemagglutinating activity