A food preservative from what?

The same oxidative reactions that can contribute to degenerative disease in people also occur in what they eat-causing rancidity and spoilage.

Manufacturers must rely on antioxidants to preserve food quality. In recent years, a move has been afoot to substitute natural alternatives for these largely synthetic chemicals. Among the more exotic candidates is an extract from the sperm glands of salmon.

To protect sperm from potentially mutagenic damage by oxidants, the salmon bathes the tissue surrounding these germ cells with antioxidants. Since fish processors generally discard sperm glands, Eric A. Decker of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and his colleagues at the Hokkaido (Japan) Food Processing Research Center investigated recycling it into a food additive.

A colorless, flavorless extract of this tissue, containing just its smallest molecules, proved highly effective in curbing the oxidation that damages red-pigmented protein in meat, they now report in the July Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The surprise, Decker says, is that the known antioxidants that they expected to be protective-compounds with such unappetizing names as putrescine, cadaverine, spermine, and spermadine-accounted for only a small fraction of the effect. His Hokkaido colleagues are now homing in on what's responsible for the bulk of the protection.

While Decker suspects that people in the United States will turn up their noses at fish-derived food preservatives, he has higher hopes for Asian cultures. Indeed, a few Japanese grocery stores currently market salmon sperm glands as food.