Use of Liquefied Dimethyl Ether for the Extraction of Proteins from Vegetable Tissues

Dimethyl ether (DME), the simplest ether with the formula CH3OCH3, is a low-temperature solvent and extraction agent applicable to specialized laboratory procedures as recently demonstrated for extraction of biologically active, flavoring or pungent organic compounds from some biological materials. Due to its low boiling point, DME facilitates the removal of solvent from the samples after extraction. In the present study, we demonstrated the extraction of proteins from juicy or relatively dry vegetable tissues and the distribution of proteins in the dry phase and separated aqueous phase were compared. It is notable that a series of proteins from carrot roots, sized between 84.7 and 33.1 kDa, were detected in the liquid sample extracted by DME, suggesting that DME could be used as an effective extraction solvent for separating the hydrophilic (water soluble) proteins from the crude protein samples. Extraction of water-soluble proteins largely depends on the de-watering action of DME.