Biological properties of Pyrularia thionin prepared from nuts of Pyrularia pubera

Pyrularia thionin is a 47 amino acid basic peptide which resembles wheat purothionin and mistletoe viscotoxin. It is toxic to mice, with an ld 50 of 1.5 mg/kg body weight and is cytotoxic to tumor and normal cells in culture, with id 50 values ranging from 0.62 to 17 μg/ml. Against seven bacterial species it was toxic only to Micrococcus luteus. The toxin did not protect mice against transplanted B16 melanoma, nor did it show any mitogenic activity with mouse spleen lymphocytes.