Oxalate Chelating Activity of Egg White Proteins and Their Hydrolysates

Abstract

Major egg white proteins and their hydrolysates serve as functional food ingredients that have certain metal-chelating properties. Employing egg white proteins and their hydrolysates to scavenge dietary oxalates is anticipated to have beneficial effect in the prevention of kidney stones. The objective of this study was to determine the biogenic oxalate-chelating activity of ovalbumin, ovomucin, and ovotransferrin and their hydrolysates. To prepare oxalate extracts, 30 mL of 0.25 N HCl was added to separately to 0.5 g of dried spinach and starfruit powders followed by boiling for 15 min, and after cooling, the addition of a further 20 mL of 0.25 N HCl. Having prepared these extracts, ovalbumin, ovomucin, and ovotransferrin and their hydrolysates were separately mixed with oxalate extracts and incubated at 3℃ for 24 h. Following centrifugation, supernatants were analyzed by HPLC using a reverse-phase C18 column coupled with a diode array detector. We found that all assessed proteins and their hydrolysates showed biogenic oxalate-chelating activity against the oxalates of spinach. In contrast, however, only ovalbumin, ovalbumin-hydrolysate, and ovomucin showed chelating activity (57.10%±8.84%, 85.44%±5.30%, 73.20%±4.13%, respectively) against the oxalates of starfruit (P<0.05). Overall, hydrolyzed ovalbumin was identified as the most effective chelator of the oxalates both spinach and starfruit. In this study, we thus established that the assessed egg white proteins and their hydrolysates have oxalate-chelating activity in vitro, thereby indicating that these compounds have potential utility as nutraceuticals for the chelation of dietary oxalate. However, further research will be necessary to verify their oxalate-chelating activities against different fruits and vegetables and under specific in vivo conditions and against purified oxalate.