Published Paper Details:

Environment pollution by toxic heavy metals (HM) presents a real life threat for human health. Accumulation of heavy metals like Cadmium, Mercury, Cobalt and Copper in water causes toxic actions if the tolerance level is exceeded. Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) activity was used for estimation of heavy metal ions in drinking water. It was based on inhibition of Alkaline Phosphatase enzyme activity exerted by metal ions. Kinetics of ALP was performed and maximum activity was found to be at using 2U/ml concentration of enzyme and hence was chosen for further studies. ALP immobilization was carried out by sol-gel method and sodium alginate method on two different surfaces: glass and stainless steel. Inhibition characteristics of ALP were tested using different concentrations of individual heavy metals ranging from 10mM to 10-5mM and also using combination of heavy metals of concentration 10-4mM.The reaction showed uncompetitive inhibition. Amongst the four heavy metals used, the amount of inhibition was found to be more in mercury compared to other metals.