Assessment of hemolytic activity of bee venom against some physicochemical factors

Abstract Bee venom (BV) is a biotoxin with biologically active peptides which have cell lysis and hemolytic activity properties. These properties can be affected under different storage conditions or during the production process. In present study, we investigated effects of a number of physicochemical factors, including temperature, pH, UV radiation, ultrasound waves and storage time on hemolytic activity of BV. Maximum absorption and melting temperature of BV solution were obtained as 280 nm and ~70 °C, respectively. Cell hemolysis 50 (CH50) -concentration of BV that can lyse 50% of red blood cells- was determined as 0.94 μg/ml at ambient temperature. CH50 was shown not to be importantly varied at temperature up to 60 °C, pH value 2 to 13 and under UV/ ultrasound radiation. Storage at −20, 6 and 25 °C for 6 months made about 2.5, 35 and 1000 times increase in CH50. From the results, it may be concluded that BV is a relatively resistant hemolytic agent and can be used in a variety of laboratory research and product manufacturing methods.