The spinnability of antarctic krill muscle proteins and the behavior of spinning dope.

Abstract

Denaturation and hydrolysis of proteins occur easily during the preparation of dope from antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) muscle proteins thus it is hard to obtain the homogenous spun fiber products. Heat generated during the mixing process of spinning dope enhances the denaturation and hydrolysis. In order to find out the most adequate approach to prepare spinning dope, the relationships between the spinnability and the major subunit contents of antarctic krill muscle proteins in various spinning dopes were studied with SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and gel filtration. Dope which showed good spinnabilily was prepared optimum at 48°C during the mixing process and the most adequate concentration of NaOH was found to be 0.4% (w/w). The elution pattern of raw antarctic krill muscle proteins showed 3 peaks, but it was apparently altered by Na-alginate or k-carrageenan. Results showed that there was a complex formation between antarctic krill muscle proteins and anionic polysaccharides as they were homogenized during the mixing process.