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Food and Life
Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources

Food Life

eISSN: 2714-0865

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5851/fl.2600005

Research Article

A Simple Foam-based Strategy for Sequential Isolation of Lysozyme and Ovomucin from Chicken Egg White

Gamaethige Dona Yasara Pabasari1,3, Alakolanga Gedara Achala Wimukthika Alagakolanga2, Madiththe Gedara Asela Sandaruwan Abeyrathna3, Shine Htet Aung3, Edirisinghe Dewage Nalaka Sandun Abeyrathne1, Dong UK Ahn4, Nam Ki Chang3,*
1Department of Animal Science, Uva Wellassa University, Badulla 90000, Sri Lanka.
2Department of export Agriculture, Uva Wellassa University, Badulla 90000, Sri Lanka.
3Department of Animal Science and Technology, Sunchon National University, Suncheon 57922, Korea.
4Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames 50011IA, United States.
*Corresponding Author: Nam Ki Chang, Department of Animal Science and Technology, Sunchon National University, Suncheon 57922, Korea, Republic of. E-mail: kichang@scnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2026 Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Apr 02, 2026; Revised: Apr 28, 2026; Accepted: May 11, 2026

Published Online: May 28, 2026

Abstract

Chicken egg white contains valuable functional proteins such as lysozyme and ovomucin, which are widely used in food and medicinal applications. However, efficient and scalable separation remains a challenge. This study devised a simple foam-based approach for the successive isolation of these proteins. Egg white foam was generated and redissolved under optimized conditions using 0.6% sodium dodecyl sulfate at pH 9. Lysozyme was selectively separated by cation-exchange adsorption and eluted with 0.5 M NaCl, while ovomucin was extracted from the supernatant via isoelectric precipitation at pH 4.75. Protein identity and structural integrity were verified by SDS-PAGE, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and FTIR analysis. Lysozyme had significantly higher purity (81.18 ± 10.73%), while ovomucin had higher yield (44.68 ± 2.89%) and weight (0.86 ± 0.06 g) (p < 0.05). Lysozyme produced lower yield (26.38 ± 1.35%) and weight (0.49 ± 0.03 g). These findings suggest a trade-off between purity and yield due to variances in protein characteristics. The proposed process provides a simple, cost-effective, and scalable option for extracting high-value egg white proteins, although more optimization is required to improve ovomucin purity.

Keywords: Egg white; lysozyme; ovomucin; foam-based separation; cation-exchange adsorption