ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the natural antimicrobials that exist in animals where they evolved as host defense mechanisms and may exhibit antimicrobial activity in foods as natural ingredients or be extracted and used as additives in other foods. In general, animal-derived antimicrobials have been known for many years and, thus, there has been much interest in the isolation and purification of these compounds to be used as food antimicrobials or as adjuncts to other antimicrobials. The discussion in this chapter targets mainly those antimicrobials isolated from milk, especially of bovine origin, and from poultry eggs, including lactoperoxidase, lactoferrin, immunoglobulins (lactoglobulins, ovoglobulins), avidin, and lactolipids. Also included are discussions of defensins (a group of antimicrobial peptides with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, including protamine and magainin) and chitosan ((1-4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-β-D-glucan), a series of polysaccharides with differing ratios of glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine and other antimicrobials of animal origin (pleurocidin, casocidin, lysozyme, and lipids).
