Egg White Proteins

Egg white as a protein system possesses much interest, both biochemical and technological. Study of the egg white proteins has been handicapped by the difficulty of preparation. The five variant system developed by Cohn and coworkers for the fractionation of plasma offers many advantages over the salting-out techniques (1). Low temperatures are employed to improve protein stability. Since low salt concentrations are employed, prolonged dialyses are avoided. Ethanol can be removed easily and rapidly by lyophilization. The ethanol fractionation procedures are adaptable to commercial operations so that production of valuable byproducts is a possibility. In this study, an attempt has been made to adapt the ethanol techniques to the egg white system. Emphasis has been placed on the development of an over-all scheme and not on the preparation of any single fraction. Purity of individual fractions has been a secondary consideration in order to obtain all the fractions in the highest possible yields.