Abstract
In the tomato (L. esculentum) plant, the fruit juice was the richest source of agglutinating activity. The lectin responsible could be inhibited by oligomers of N-acetylglucosamine, and this property was exploited to purify the lectin by affinity adsorption on trypsin-treated human erythrocytes. The lectin is a glycoprotein that cross-reacts immunologically with the lectin from Datura stramonium (thorn-apple).