THE EFFECT OF HEATING EGG WHITE ON CERTAIN CHARACTERISTIC PELLAGRA-LIKE MANIFESTATIONS PRODUCED IN RATS BY ITS DIETARY USE

Abstract

Egg-white heated to various degrees was fed for a 30-day test period to rate in which pronounced dermatitis had been produced on a presumably adequate ration containing 66% of raw egg-white, either Chinese dried, or fresh, calculated on a dry basis. Cure of the dermatitis was taken to indicate a detoxication of the treated egg-white substituted in the basal ration. Egg-white from fresh or cold-storage eggs, whether cooked at once or after drying and moistening again, was detoxified by heating for 5 min. at 80[degree]. Thus, desiccation, in itself, does not create toxicity in egg-white. Chinese dried egg-white, moistened, required about 18 times this length of heating at 80[degree]. Fresh egg-white from brown-shelled eggs was somewhat more readily detoxified than that from white-shelled eggs. The injury from raw egg-white appears to involve an interrelation between a positive toxicity and a relative absence of a protective factor.