The nature of tyrosinase

Abstract

The view that tyrosinase is a mixture of a number of components has been held by several investigators. Haehn [1920] reported that potato tyrosinase lost its activity on dialysis or ultrafiltration, but regained it on addition of the ultrafiltrate or boiled juice. He concluded that the activator was inorganic in nature. Raper and Wormall [1923], while partially confirming Haehn's finding, noticed that the boiled juice of new but not of old potatoes had an accelerating effect. They also adduced evidence to show that the activator in potato juice is organic in nature. In an earlier paper [Narayanamurti and Ramaswami, 1929] it was shown that on ultrafiltration of Dolichos tyrosinase the residual liquid on the ultrafilter was active and that the addition of the ultrafiltrates to the residual liquid did not cause any acceleration. The following additional results have so far been obtained.