Research on sweetened egg white fermentation and albumen-derived functional peptides using lactic acid bacteria

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K17902
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Eating habits; Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: Arakawa Kensuke 岡山大学, 環境生命科学研究科, 准教授 (50609930)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 乳酸菌 / 卵白 / 発酵 / Lactobacillus casei / Lacticaseibacillus / リゾチーム / 菌体外プロテアーゼ / プロテアーゼ阻害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Egg fermentation with lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is generally recognized to be difficult due to its high preservability. In particular, for fermentation of egg white, any nutritional supplement such as yeast extract had been needed to grow LAB well. In this study, egg white fermentation was achieved specifically using Lactobacillus casei-group LAB without any supplements except sugar. Then, it was found that Lb. casei-group LAB were tolerant to lysozyme and protease inhibitor proteins included in egg white. That is thought as the reasons why they can specifically ferment sweetened egg white. We are continuously researching about the mechanism of egg white fermentation in detail, and also about the functional peptides derived from egg white proteins during the fermentation.

Free Research Field

畜産物利用学、畜産食品学、乳卵科学、食品加工保蔵学、食品微生物学、発酵学、生物活性ペプチド

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

卵は保存性に富み、発酵が困難であると考えられてきたことから、これまで液卵発酵に関する研究はほとんどなされてこなかった。本研究では、世界に先駆けて、酵母エキス等の補助栄養成分の添加に頼らない、加糖のみでの乳酸菌による卵白発酵を実現した。このことは、発酵液卵という新たな食品の誕生の礎になることが十分に想定され、社会的意義は極めて高いと考えている。また、それだけでなく、卵白発酵のメカニズムを解明する過程で、いままで十分に明らかにされてこなかった乳酸菌のタンパク質代謝に関する新たな知見を見出せたことは、学術的意義も十分にあったと考えている。