Preparation of Phytohemagglutinin from Phaseolus coccineus

Abstract

Seventeen kinds of leguminous plant seeds have been surveyed for the mitogenic activity against human peripheral lymphocytes, and it has been found that five of them have distinct mitogenic activity.
The mitogenic factor of Phaseolus coccineus seeds which had been found to have the strongest activity was partially purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation and subsequent gel filtration on a Sephadex G-150 column. The preparation thus obtained was assumed to be a kind of glycoproteins and had a strong hemagglutination activity.