Abstract
Chalaza and egg yolk membrane fractions obtained from a liquid egg processing plant were evaluated as the sources for sialic acid preparation. Only N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), a derivative of sialic acid, was found in high concentration in both fractions. In the final purification step, about 50mg and 175mg of NANA, of which the purity was higher than 95%, were obtained from 100g of wet chalaza and wet egg yolk membrane fractions, respectively. Chalaza and egg yolk membrane fractions are usually separated off at the egg processing plant from egg white and egg yolk by filtration and discarded without further utilization. Eggs are commonly available and used world-wide as food, therefore, these fractions were considered to be very excellent sources for an industrial-scale preparation of NANA.
