Non-enzyme detergent and egg whites

[lekh2003]

Hello everyone!

I was doing an experiment recently which was a run of the mill testing for enzymes eating away at egg whites. Now, I managed to correctly predict that an enzyme detergent would eat away at hard boiled egg white slices. I did this by placing the egg whites in an enzyme detergent solution for 48 hours. The egg became much softer, and shrivelled up.

At the same time, I found a brand of non-enzyme detergent, and placed an egg white slice in that as well. The brand was Pigeon Baby Detergent. The weird thing was that the egg white didn't get softer or stay the same. It actualy became harder and almost solid. I have a feeling this is because I kept the solution in an environment with an average temperature of around 40 degrees for 48 hours. Is it possible for the egg to become harder and more firm from being at such a temperature temperature for a long period of time?

I apologize if this is ridiculously simple, I just don't find anything of value online about eggs getting harder at these temperatures.

 

[pinball1970]

The proteins turn white when the albumen starts to denature (unravel) Heat can do this but pH can probably do this as well at lower temperatures.
What was the pH of the solution?

 

[lekh2003]

Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't have any indicator, but I would assume that the detergent is more alkaline. I guess that could be a contributing factor, and it would explain the results quite well. The non-enzyme baby detergent I used seems to be more alkaline than regular detergent.

 

[pinball1970]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denaturation_(biochemistry)#Bases
yes its on the list