A platelet aggregation factor was purified from the venom of southern copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix) by DEAE-cellulose ion-exchange chromatography, precipitation with ammonium sulfate, affinity chromatography using bovine serum albumin as ligand, and gel filtration on Cellulofine GCL-2000. It had molecular weights of 11,000 and 14,000, as determined by gel filtration chromatography and sodium dodecyl sulfate--polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), respectively. It consists of a single polypeptide, and was identified as a phospholipase A2. It was quite resistant to heat and various denaturing reagents including urea and SDS. It lost both phospholipase A2 activity and platelet aggregating activity upon modification of histidine residue(s) with p-bromophenacyl bromide. Its specificity towards the beta-position of phospholipid in esterolytic reaction was confirmed by gas-liquid chromatography using a pure synthetic phosphatidylcholine. Platelet aggregation by this phospholipase A2 was completely inhibited by prostacyclin, but was little inhibited by aspirin which indicates almost no direct participation of released arachidonic acid in the aggregation mechanism.