Natural pigment betacyanin as tracking dye for gel electrophoresis

Abstract

Several dyes including bromophenol blue are used as tracking dye in gel electrophoresis. The stability of betacyanin extracted from spinach vine fruit (Basella rubra L.) was studied in relation to degradative factors such as pH ranging from 2 to 12 and at 100ºC. Betacyanin pigment was found to be stable at pH range 3-8 while the stability of the pigment at high temperature was found to be moderate. The effectiveness of betacyanin as a tracking dye was checked along with the bromophenol blue for agarose gel electrophoresis. The present study revealed that betacyanin from spinach fruit can be a potential alternative to conventional dye like bromophenol blue used in the loading dye preparation for agarose gel electrophoresis.