Isolation and Molecular Weight Characterization of Tetragonula laeviceps Honey Protein

Abstract

The concentration of protein in honey is lower than polysaccharide. However, recently the honey’s prot ein is intensively studied and it showed that protein also have several biolo g cal activities such as antibacterial activity. Th e purpose of this research is to isolate and characte rize Tetragonula laeviceps honey protein by determining the molecular weight. Honey protein of Trigona laeviceps was isolated using ultra-filtration with the membra ne’s size of 30 kDa, then concentrated using tube membrane size 10 kDa. Molec ular weight was analyzed by SDS PAGE. From the anal ysis, there was major protein band in honey produced by Tetragona laeviceps identified. The produced molecular weight of major protein bands were about 87 and 65 kDa. Deter mining of the molecular weight of this protein coul d be used to detect the originality of Tetragonula laeviceps honey from Indonesia.