Purple membrane (PM) is a part of cytoplasmic membrane in certain extreme halophilic microorganisms belonging to Domain Archaea. It transduces light energy to generate proton gradient for ATP synthesis in the microorganisms. Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) is the only protein in PM responsible for the generation of proton gradient. Generally, PM was purified from Halobacterium salinarum via a tedious and lengthy sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation (SGU). In this work, a facile method based on polyethyleneglycol (PEG)-phosphate aqueous-two- phase extraction system (ATPS) was employed to purify PM from cell lysate of H. salinarum. The results showed that PM could be completely recovered from the interface of PEG-phosphate ATPS with BR purity ca 94.1% as measured by UV-visible absorption spectra. In comparison with PM obtained by SGU, the PM isolated by ATPS could achieve the same level of purity and photocurrent activity (ca 177.2 nA/mu g BR/cm(2)) as analyzed by SDS-PAGE and photocurrent measurement, respectively. The easily scalable and straightforward ATPS procedure demonstrated that PM can be purified and recovered more cost-effectively with a significantly reduced operation time that should lead to broader range applications of PM possible. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.