A novel monofunctional benzyldithiocarbamate, C(6)H(5)CH(2)NHCSSNa (I), and a bifunctional p-xylidine-bis(dithiocarbamate), NaSSCNHCH(2)C(6)H(4)CH(2)NHCSSNa (II), as sodium salts, were synthesized by reaction between p-xylylenediamine or benzylamine with CS(2) in the presence of NaOH. They were characterized by spectroscopic techniques such as (1)H NMR, IR, and elemental analysis. These water-soluble compounds were examined for their inhibition of both activities of mushroom tyrosinase (MT) from a commercial source of Agricus bisporus. l-3,4- Dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) and l-tyrosine were used as natural substrates for the catecholase and cresolase enzyme reactions, respectively. Kinetic studies showed noncompetitive inhibition of I and mixed type inhibition of II on both activities of MT. The inhibition constant (K(I)) of II was smaller than that of I. Raising the temperature from 27 to 37 degrees C caused a decrease in K(I) values of I and an increase in values of II. The binding process for inhibition of I was only entropy driven, which means that the predominant interaction in the active site of the enzyme is hydrophobic; meanwhile, the electrostatic interaction can be important for the inhibition of II due to the enthalpy driven binding process. Fluorescence studies showed a decrease of emission intensity without a shift of emission maximum in the presence of different concentrations of compounds. An extrinsic fluorescence study did not show any considerable change of the tertiary structure of MT. Probably, the conformation of inhibitor-bound MT is stable and inflexible compared with uninhibited MT.