Research note: Effects of different physical treatments on the solubilization of ovomucin

Ovomucin (OVM) is a highly glycosylated macromolecular glycoprotein with diverse bioactivities, but its poor solubility has limited in-depth studies of its structure and functional properties. The objective of this study was to enhance the solubility of OVM using a range of treatments, including high-speed shear homogenization, high-pressure homogenization, ultrasonication, shear-high-pressure homogenization, and ultrasonication-high-pressure homogenization. A comparative analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of different physical treatments on the physicochemical properties and thermal stability of OVM. Results indicated that all physical treatments, except high-speed shear homogenization, significantly increased OVM solubility to over 95 %. All physical treatments disrupted the hydrated OVM network structure, consequently reducing particle size while enhancing solubility, light transmittance, absolute zeta potential, and surface hydrophobicity. Compared to other physical treatments, high-pressure homogenization broke up OVM aggregates into smaller particles (231.93 nm) and unfolded their conformation, resulting in a higher zeta potential (16.54 mV) and increased surface hydrophobicity. Furthermore, among all physical treatments, the OVM treated with high-pressure homogenization exhibited the most favorable viscous properties while maintaining thermal stability. This study comprehensively compared the effects of different physical treatments on OVM solubilization, providing a theoretical basis to guide the selection of OVM solubilization methods and bioactivity assessment.