I have to perform LD50 experiments. For that I need accurate concentration of venom to be known.
There is no accurate measurement. . You can either rely on the assumption that 90-95% of the venom dry weight is protein/peptide (MARKLAND, F.S.; Snake venom and hemostatic system.Toxicon, v.36, p. 1749-1800, 1998) or estimate protein concentration by Bradford or BCA, but none of these will be 100% accurate.
I agree with the above comment that you can use bradford or BCA protein assay to estimate the protein conc. However, very often small amounts of proteins are lyophilised by including carrier (proteins) that may interfere with the protein estimation.
Indeed, small amounts of proteins are often lyophilized with carriers but, to my knowledge, snake venoms are extracted, frozen and freeze dried without any adittves.
You may use microelectrophoresis to find out find out what the amount of protein in the sample is. Reference 3 (Patrick Jach Spencer ) means that vernons are extracted..... without additives. The best way to remove proteins from your samples it to treat the samples witn Proteases, followed by precipttation of the enzyme. See Maniatis
Entirely agree with Patrick J Spencer on the assumption suggested. Using a sensitive and well calibrated balance (or microbalance if available), standardize your venom LD50 experiments by weight.
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