WISER CHOICE FOR EGGS!!!

If u are reading this article, then u are surely making your way to a wise decision regarding the uncontested champion of the breakfast table- the egg!!! You are on your way through an experiment that was performed by me along with my friends right back when I was in +2. It is really your good luck favouring you when u get a chance to work under the superb guidance of The H.O.D, Biochemistry of I.P.G.M.E.R namely Prof. (Dr.) S.Chakraborty and that too in the grand laboratory of the department. A person, no less than a human resource in the field of Bio-chemistry, he helped us throughout our entire experimental proceedings. Well, later half of the experiment was completed in our school lab under the supervision of Ms. Nandita Dastidar, our respected teacher of Chemistry, B.D.Memorial Institute. We are thankful to her for her love and patience and also for expressing her utmost confidence in us to carry out the project we chose. Actually, our aim was to i) Calculate protein content per egg of each variety ii) Calculate cholesterol content per egg of each variety iii) Calculate protein: cholesterol ratio of each variety iv) Assess which variety is the most nutritious one on the grounds of protein & cholesterol ratio and protein : cholesterol ratio. We landed up in the lab on the very first day with three different egg types: one of poultry (Sample A), one of a duck(Sample C) and the other one which you call lavishly as desi hens egg(Sample B)!!! The entire lab was becoming filthy with such a devilish smell! The Lowry method was used for protein estimation. The lowry reagent is actually comprising of 3 different types solutions(Solution A: 50ml aqueous solution of NaOH+Na2CO3 Solution B: 10ml aqueous solution of CuSO4.5H2O{0.143g} Solution C: 10ml aqueous solution of Sod.Tartarate{0.285} and then mixing them in proportion of 100:1:1 by volume to obtain Lowrys reagent) ; the principle of which includes reaction of peptide nitrogen of the protein under alkaline conditions with copper ions and then the subsequent reduction of Folin- Ciocalteay phosphomolybdicphosphotungstic acid to heteropolymolybdenum blue by the copper catalyzed oxidation of aromatic acids within pH range of 10- 10.5. This reagent was so unstable at room temperature that it was prepared just before the step of using it. However, as this reaction is usually hindered by side reactions of lipids, 1% Sodium Do-decylsulphate (SDS) was added

to the samples to solubilize the lipid components. Estimation of cholesterol was done exploiting the idea of the conversion of cholesterol to cholest-4-en-3-one by cholesterol oxidase enzyme with the production of H2O2. H2O2 is subsequently broken down by peroxidase to produce nascent oxygen which reacts with phenol and to produce a coloured complex. A stock solution of BSA (Bovine Serum Albumin) of concentration 800g/ml diluted to 400 times using 1% SDS was used as the Working Standard(S). Methods of Spectroscopy was then applied when absorbance was collected first for the working sample and then one by one for the three test samples at 680nm wavelength for the protein estimation; that for cholesterol involved using a semi-auto analyzer in the concentration mode. The procedure and observations made are tabulated here as under: PROCEDURE: A) PROTEIN ESTIMATION: B S1 A A+ (Blank) 1% SDS 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.3 S 0.1 EGG SAMPLE 0.2 0.2 LOWRYs REAGENT 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 KEPT FOR 10 MINS FOLIN REAGENT 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 KEPT FOR 45 MINS OBSERVATIONS: Absorbance for Blank(x): 0.075 SAMPLE Absorbance of sample -x (mean values) S 0.105 A 0.2705 B 0.315 C 0.306 Protein content for the samples(g) 5.461 6 6.622

B 0.3 0.2 2.5

B+ 0.3 0.2 2.5

C 0.3 0.2 2.5

C+ 0.3 0.2 2.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

B) CHOLESTEROL CONTENT: SAMPLE S A B C CONCENTRATION (CCh )mg/dl 200 561.3 650.9 672.2 CONTENT/EGG (TCh = CChVS)mg 297.48 325.45 383.154

Vs= volume of standard

THE PROTEIN: CHOLESTEROL RATIO:Sample A(poultry egg) = 5.461:0.29748 = 18.3575:1 Sample B(desi hens egg) = 6:0.32545 = 18.436:1 Sample C( ducks egg) = 6.622:0.38315 = 17.2828:1 The ducks egg was therefore concluded to have the lowest protein: cholesterol ratio per egg making it the least nutritive. Although the ratio obtained for that of the poultry and the desi hens egg was nearly same, taking a deep insight into it would reveal something very obvious. Protein content per desi hens egg was 0.6g greater than that of poultry (negligible compared to 70g for human requirement) but its cholesterol content is about 50mg more compared to that of the poultry. This is a rather significant fact because such a value corresponds to nearly 15% of the daily cholesterol requirement of the human body. Thus, the poultry egg stands out to be superior to its competitor on grounds of increased protein content and decreased cholesterol amount. It was therefore a wonderful working experience where we were introduced for the first time to cuvettes and micropipettes and many other things. But whatever the result of the experiment, consumption of poultry eggs by people, is obviously not encouraged who have been advised by the respected doctors to keep off from the same owing to some genuine clinical reasons. Although for the common individuals, intake of either variety is good enough, it is always better to make a decision wise enough so that you are better safer than sorry. ---ANIRUDDHA DEY 2ND YEAR CEMA, ROLL- 308