ovalbumen, -in Chem.
(əʊvælˈbjuːmən, -ɪn)
[f. L. ovi albumen (Pliny), white of egg.]
The albumen or white of egg; egg albumen. In mod. use written ovalbumin and applied to the albumin that is the principal protein of egg-white.
| 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 89/2 Coagulated ovalbumen, when long boiled in water, becomes bulky and falls into pieces. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem. III. 652 The reactions of albumen from the white of the hen's egg (ovalbumen), therefore, differ in some respects from those afforded by albumen contained in the serum of blood (seralbumen). 1892 Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v., Ovalbumin is not precipitated by ether. 1905 C. E. Simon Text-bk. Physiol. Chem. (ed. 2) xxi. 457 According to Gautier and some of the older observers, white of egg (albumen) contains a number of different albumins, which in part seem to belong to the true albumins and in part to the globulins. They have been designated as α-, β-, and γ-ovalbumin, and α- and β- ovoglobulin. 1934 W. R. Fearon Introd. Biochem. vi. 86 Ovalbumin makes up the greater part (10–13 per cent.) of egg-white. 1959 [see ovoglobulin]. 1970 R. W. McGilvery Biochem. viii. 150 The principal protein of egg whites, ovalbumin, is especially susceptible to denaturation in this way. |