A new Bauhinia monandra galactose-specific lectin purified in milligram quantities from secondary roots with antifungal and termiticidal activities

Insecticide Activity of Lectins and Secondary Metabolites

“…SDS-PAGE revealed that the lectin was a 26-kDa glycoprotein. BmoRoL showed antifungal activity against Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum (Souza et al, 2011b). …”

“…Bauhinia monandra (Angiosperms, Eudicots, Rosids, Eurosids I/Fabidae, Order Fabales, Family Fabaceae) has the popular names "pata-de-vaca" in Portuguese, "orquidea del pobre" in Spanish, and pulse or Napoleon's plume in English (Judd et al, 2007;Souza et al, 2011b). B. monandra leaf infusions are used as medicine in the treatment of diabetes mellitus.…”

“…Two lectins were purified at milligram level from leaf and secondary roots of B. monandra, and were called BmoLL and BmoRoL, respectively. The isolation procedures included protein extraction with 0.15 M NaCl, ammonium sulphate (60%) fractionation and affinity chromatography on guar gel column (Coelho and Silva, 2000;Souza et al, 2011b). BmoLL agglutinated rabbit and human (AB and B types) erythrocytes and this hemagglutinating activity was inhibited by D(+)galactose and D(+)rafinose.…”

“…Lectins have deleterious effects against larvae, developing stages and mature forms of insects from orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, Isoptera, Lepidoptera and Neuroptera (Murdock et al, 1990;Eisemann et al, 1994;Powell et al, 1995;Zhu-Salzman et al, 1998;Bandyopadhyay et al, 2001;Isidro et al, 2001;Hogervorst et al, 2006;Kaur et al, 2006;Coelho et al, 2007;Macedo et al, 2007;Fitches et al, 2008;Sá et al, 2008;Coelho et al, 2009;Sá et al, 2009c;Silva et al, 2009;Napoleão et al, 2011;Souza et al, 2011b). Insecticide activity of lectin is generally evaluated by bioassays that incorporate the lectin into artificial diets offered to insects, with insects dying from nutritional deprivation.…”

“…It has been reported that insecticidal activity of MuBL and MuLL can be due to the resistance of M. urundeuva lectins to proteolysis by enzymes from N. corniger gut, and to antibacterial action against symbiotic gut bacteria that is essential for termite survival . The lectin from B. monandra secondary roots (BmoRoL) at concentrations of 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 mg ml -1 also induced the mortality of N. corniger (Souza et al, 2011b). This lectin was more efficient against soldiers (LC 50 : 0.014 mg ml -1 ) than workers (LC 50 : 0.09 mg ml -1 ).…”