The Fate of Antitrypsin in Egg White During Storage and Incubation

THE antitryptic factor in egg white has been identified by Lineweaver and Murray (1947) with ovomucoid, and shown by Stacey et al. (1942) and by Takemori et al. (1952) to be a protein-carbohydrate complex. The behavior of this complex during storage or incubation was a matter of lively interest 30–40 years ago, long before its antitryptic property was recognized. It is therefore somewhat surprising that little or nothing appears to have been published since, despite the widely held opinion that ovomucoid and ovomucin together are probably responsible for the jelly-like consistency of egg white which is frequently taken as a criterion of its freshness. The early workers, Needham (1926) and Bywaters (1913) were not at first in agreement as to whether ovomucoid disappeared or not during incubation, but substantial agreement was later reached (Needham, 1927) that no great change in the total ovomucoid occurred until very late in the …