I work with snake venom inhibition by plant extracts and I'm having a problem with a specific extract that is very apolar and don't dissolve in water nor PBS nor DMSO 5% in PBS. Is there any estimate of maximum concentration of DMSO that I could use for solubilizing my extract? Could anyone suggest some other solvents to solubilize my very apolar extract that may be compatible with snake venom enzymes? Thanks.
Hi Juliana, you could try to bind your hydrophobic plant extracts to fatty acid-free serum albumin. Serum albumin is the major carrier of hydrophobic molecules in blood and it could bind your molecule of interest.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0008834
I'm not sure if that would solve your problem, but what we do with our substances that do not dissolve in water, we make e.g. 50mM stock in DMSO or 50%MeOH (only if DMSO doesn't work) and then add it to the reaction mixture so that the final concentratio is about 1 mM, so the DMSO is less than 5%.
To check that this amount doesn't interfere with your enzymes, add it to your standard reaction to see what is the highest concentration that doesn't interfere.
Dear Juliana.
I agree with Anish Nag. However, you aims to dissolve the components of the plants of interest to thereafter test them as inhibitors of some activity animal venoms.So, I believe you can dissolve its extract in ethanol (or DMSO) to make a stock solution. As I work with B. jararaca venom for many years, I am sure that 5% of ethanol or DMSO will not interfere in your experiments.
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