X-Ray Crystallography and Its Applications in Dairy Science: A Review

Abstract

X-ray crystallography (XRC) is the study of crystals using X-rays. XRC is the primary method in which detailed structure of molecules especially molecules that pertain to living systems have been visualized and discovered by exposing a well-ordered crystal of a substance to X-rays and finally generating the structural information from the spots produced on a film due to this impact. X-ray crystallography has been used for analysis of liquid milk, milk powders, milkstones, polymorphism of milk fat and most widely and importantly in discovering the structure of most of the milk proteins and thus helping in correlating their structure with possible functions.
Keywords: X-ray crystallography, crystals, detector, resolution, electron density maps