A Simple Method for the Purification of Nisin

Abstract

Nisin, an antimicrobial peptide showing activity against a broad range of Gram-positive bacteria, is widely used as a food preservative and has potential as a therapeutic for a range of infectious diseases. Here, we present a simple purification method, based on a salting-out approach, which can produce a powder containing ∼33% nisin, from a nisin-producing culture in a whey permeate-based medium. This process removes over 99% of the lactic acid, NaCl, lactose and non-nisin proteins from the cell-free culture supernatant. The approach can also enrich a commonly used commercial nisin preparation over 30-fold to a purity of ∼58%. These are higher purities than comparable published methods. The simplicity of this approach facilitates its use in research and also its scale-up.