STUDIES ON THE CHEMISTRY OF CURED MEAT PIGMENT FADING^a

Spectral Studies of the Pigments of Cooked Cured Meats

“…The formation of the proper cured meat hematin pigment and its stabilization is a problem of great importance to the meat preservation industry. The cured meat pigment is assumed to be a denatured globin nitric oxide hernochrome (2,8). Its color, heat stability, and oxygen lability are all characteristic of hemochromes ; however, critical evaluation of this assumed composition is lacking.…”

Relation of sulfhydryl groups to the fading of cured meat

“…Inasmuch as Walsh and Rose studied the native pigment rather than the denatured pig ment found in cooked meat, their proposal may not relate to the mechanism of cured meat fading. Draudt and Deatherage (1956) observed in manometric studies that a portion of the nitric oxide of denatured globin nitric oxide irçyohemochrome was oxidized to nitrite and nitrate. Carbon dioxide was also found as one of the oxidation products.…”

“…For the preparation of myoglobin, a combination of the methods of Theorell (1932), Morgan (1936), Ginger et al (195*4) and Draudt and Deatherage (1956) was used with some additional modification. (Lemberg and Legge, 1949» p. 490).…”

“…In addition to those reactions involving sulfhydryl groups considered in the Review of Literature, Schales (1938) reported the production of hydrogen peroxide when oxygen was passed through solutions of cysteine, glutathione or thioglycollic acid. Although neither Walsh and Rose (1956) nor Draudt and Deatherage (1956) found evidence of peroxide formation during fading of nitric oxide myoglobin or denatured globin nitric oxide myohemochrome, these workers investigated the action of light on pigment alone. In studies of reaction mixtures containing unsaturated fats, sulfhydryl groups and hematin compounds, Tappel and Zalkin (1959a) attributed the peroxidation of mitochondrial lipids to hematin catalysis.…”

“…DGmMb represents the brown ferric hemichrome. Draudt and Deatherage (1956) reported the production of nitrite and nitrate from DGNOMb exposed to light and oxygen. The above reaction is probably an oversimplifica tion since the identity of the actual oxidizing agent is unknown.…”