Photo: Lysozyme tablets extracted from Egg-white.
Lysozyme(tablet, powder and syrup) have been , still,
prescribed by doctors in Japan. It is an enzyme which
is discovered by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1922.
He described ------
Any questions: write to Keiji Hagiwara, MD
The lysozyme was first noticed during some investigation made
on a patient suffering from coryza. The nasal secretion from this
patient was cultivated daily on blood agar plates, and for the first
three days of the infection there was no growth, with exception
an occasional staphylococcus colony.
The culture made from the nasal mucus on the fourth day showed
in 24 hours a large number of small colonies which, on examination,
proved to be large gram-positive cocci---- The microbe has not
been exactly identified but for the purposes of this communication
it may be alluded to as the Micrococcus lysodeiktics.
----- These two preliminary experiments clearly demonstrate
the very powerful inhibitory and lytic action which the nasal mucus
has upon the M. lysodeikticus. It will be shown later that this power
is shared by most of the tissue and secretions of the human body,
by the tissues of other animals, by vegetable tissues, and, to very
marked degree, by egg-white.
Ref) Alexander Fleming: The Man and the Myth. Oxford University Press.
1985.
Later studies showed that the pathogenic bacteria, such as
staphylococci, streptococci and E. coli, did not lysis by this
enzyme. Cat have few lysozyme in tear and gastro-intestinal
tube, and Sheep have no lysozyme in tear and intestine.
However, these animals are healthy. Thus lysozyme is not the
major defense substances against bacterias.
Any questions: write to Keiji Hagiwara, MD
keijihagiwara@gmail.com
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