Venoms from eight snakes have been screened for inhibitory activity against papain, strong activity being found in that of the African puff adder, Bitis arietans. The inhibitor from B. arietans venom has been purified by affinity chromatography on carboxymethyl-papain-Sepharose and ion-exchange chromatography. The inhibitor had an apparent Mr of 13,000 in SDS/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and pI value of 6.5 (major component) or 6.3 (minor component). Values of Ki for the inhibition of papain, cathepsin B and dipeptidyl peptidase I were 0.10, 2.7 and 0.23 nM, respectively; chicken calpain was not inhibited.