|
Antimicrobial activity of lysozyme with special relevance to
milk
Noreddine Benkerroum
Département des Sciences Alimentaires et Nutritionnelles,
Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Instituts,
10101-Rabat, Morocco.
E. mail:
n.benkerroum@gmail.com.
Tel: +212 61 16 54 52.
Fax: +212 37 77 81 35.
Accepted 5 December, 2008 |
|
Lysozyme is
a hydrolytic enzyme which has been purified from cells,
secretions and tissues of virtually all living organisms and
viruses. While this protein has been recognized to possess
many physiological and functional properties, its high
microbicidal activity remains, by far, the main virtue that
explains the high attention of scientists and industrial
stakeholders for its practical applications in medicine and
food industry. Although the egg-white is the primary source
for lysozyme production at industrial scale, other sources
such as milk of mammals should not be overlooked, as they
may contain lysozyme molecules with specific properties not
present in the conventional egg-white lysozyme. This review
discusses the antimicrobial activity of lysozyme with
special emphasis on milk’s lysozyme, and attempts to shed
some light on the recent advances elucidating the mechanism
of its antimicrobial activity against sensitive
microorganisms as well as the means used by some bacteria to
resist such an activity.
Key
words:
Lysozyme,
antimicrobial activity, mechanism of action, resistance,
milk. |
