MEGA-9

MEGA-9 (N-Nonanoyl-N-methylglucamine) is a green, biodegradable glycosyl nonionic surfactant and micelle-forming agent. MEGA-9 acts as a membrane solubilizer, forms vesicles, solubilizes milk fat, eliminates non-specific reactions of test strips, and restores antigen-antibody reactions in cheddar cheese homogenates for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB)^[1][2]. In Vitro:MEGA-9 forms spherical micelles in aqueous solution; NaCl increases micelle size and aggregation number through salting-out effect, while 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate reduces the aggregation number and enhances micelle polarity via salting-in effect^[1].
Mega-9 (0.016-1.6% wt/vol) restores the detection sensitivity of the rapid sandwich ELISA for SEB in cheddar cheese homogenates, eliminates non-specific reactions, and yields an OD₄₉₀ reading of 0.543 when the SEB content in the homogenate is 66 ng/mL^[2].