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. 1973 Mar 1;14(1):118–128. doi: 10.1186/BF03547415

Irradiation of Chicken Egg White

I. Effect on Proteinase Inhibitors

Bestråling av hønseeggehvite

Kåre Fossum 1,✉, Bjarne Underdal 1
PMCID: PMC8559844  PMID: 4738135

Abstract

Commercial ovomucoid trypsin inhibitors (OMTI) and egg white were exposed to various doses of gamma irradiation, using a cobalt-60 source. The inhibitory activity of non-irradiated and irradiated samples on bovine trypsin was tested by the Kunitz method (Kunitz 1947). The activity of the inhibitors was shown to decrease exponentially with increasing radiation dose. The D10 for OMTI was 0.6 Mrad and for the trypsin inhibitors in the crude egg white diluted 1: 5 in saline 3.0 Mrad under the conditions used. The activity of the non-irradiated and irradiated inhibitors upon various animal, microbial and plant proteinases was also determined by using the crosswise casein precipitating inhibition test (crosswise CPI-test) (Fossum 1970a). By this method, which is more sensitive than the Kunitz method, trypsin inhibitory activity in egg white could be detected after exposure to an irradiation dose of 9 Mrad. No inhibitory activity could be found against any enzyme after an irradiation dose of 15 Mrad.

Irradiation as a preservation method for egg and egg products is discussed.

Keywords: irradiation, preservation, enzymes, trypsin, inhibitors, resistance

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