Pink Egg Discoloration with Methyl Dihydrosterculate

The formation of pink whites during storage of eggs from hens that had been fed sterculic and malvalic acid derivatives has been amply documented (reviews: Carter and Frampton, 1964; Shenstone et al., 1965; Phelps et al., 1965). Destruction of the cyclopropene ring in these compounds gave normal eggs when the treated materials were incorporated into the diets of laying hens. Although small amounts of cyclopropane derivatives had no deleterious effects on egg quality (Masson et al., 1957; Shenstone and Vickery, 1959), large quantities have never been fed to hens. Wood and Reiser (1965) fed methyl cis and trans-9, 10-methylene octadecanoate (I) to rats at a level of 0.54% of a fat free diet and observed that the cyclopropane acids are incorporated into the rat adipose tissue and are also oxidized to the 3, 4-methylene dodecanoic acids (II). Chung (1966), working with rat liver mitochondria, showed that the methylene carbon …