11. Coomassie Blue Staining

A. Materials :

      a.   Coomassie blue stain :

Methanol                                                          -     227 ml

Glacial acetic acid                                             -     46 ml

Mix and add 1.2 g coomassie brilliant blue R-250 and make up to 500 ml. Filter the solution through Whatman-1 filter paper and store in a brown bottle.

      b.   Destaining solution :

Methanol                                                          -     50 ml

Glacial acetic acid                                            -     70 ml

Mix and make up to 1 litre with distilled water.

      c.   Preserving solution :

Ethanol                                                             -     300 ml

Acetic acid (glacial)                                         -     100 ml

Glycerol                                                            -     100 ml

Mix and make up to 1 litre with distilled water.

B. Method : 

1.    Place the gel in coomassie blue stain for 1 hr.

2.    Rinse the gel in Distilled water.

3. Place in the destaining solution for about  6  hr. Change the destaining solution frequently.

 4. After the destaining is completed transfer the gel to the preserving solution and wait for an hour.

5. Cover the gel with a plastic foil and allow it to dry at room temperature. Alternately the gel may be dried in the slab gel dryer. 

Note:

Thorough destaining of the gel is necessary if it is to be silver stained further.