You might have used hair serums and know that they mostly possess ‘biotin’. Biotin is essentially ‘vitamin H’. Biotin is basically called the anti egg white injury factor.
Biotin deficiency mainly caused by the consumption of raw egg whites. Raw egg whites contain high levels of the protein named ‘Avidin’. Avidin is basically raw egg white injury factor. The symptoms include loss of volumes in hair with simultaneous loss of hair colour. Seborrheic and eczematous which types of skin rashes. In extreme cases it may lead to depression, hallucinations and even paresthesias of extremities.
Avidin binds strongly to biotin and makes biotin unavailable for absorption. One molecul of avidin binds to 4 molecules of biotin. Thus avidin is tetrameric biotin binding protein. Avidin denaturates upon heating. Proteins does have denaturating ability which makes them coagulated or precipitated by adding heat or acid or alkali to them. So this denaturation is meant for its loss of activity. While the biotin remains intact upon heating. Therefore biotin is readily absorbed when boiled eggs are used in the diet.
PS: Through this ChemFam tag I will be writing short articles related to chemistry and its uses and applications. If you are passionate like me in chemistry feel free to use the tag and post your content.