Variation of the Muscle Protein in Horse Mackerel

Ultracentrifugal pattern and the rate of flow birefringence of 0.6M KCl extracts from the muscle of horse mackerel were determined, and the jelly forming ability of the fish meat was also measured. In the experiment, different types of the muscle in the postmortem changes have been found: the protein changes as the progress of time after death of the fish, and the jelly with very high strength can be produced only when the muscle is fresh; the protein hardly changes for a long time after death of the fish and jelly with very high strength can be obtained even if the muscle is unfresh; on the contrary, the protein changes easily and any jelly can not be produced even if the muscle is fresh. There was no clear relationship between the above mentioned properties of the muscle and fishing ground, season or method.