Design and applications of biomimetic anthraquinone dyes. Purification of calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase with immobilised terminal ring analogues of C.I. reactive blue 2.

A 330-fold one-step purification of alkaline phosphatase from a crude calf intestinal extract has been achieved using specific elution with inorganic phosphate (5 mM) from a purpose designed adsorbent comprising a terminal ring phosphonate analogue of C.I. Reactive Blue 2 coupled to Sepharose CL-6B-200. The resulting alkaline phosphatase preparation displayed a specific activity in excess of 1000 U/mg and was of equivalent purity to commercial "high purity" preparations as deduced by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and specific activity comparisons.