Flow curves of an adsorbed protein layer at the saliva-air interface

At the air-liquid interface of human saliva a protein layer is adsorbed. An apparatus is described with which a flow curve of this layer was measured. In the majority of samples the viscosity of the surface layer changed gradually and could be described by a power-law dependence on the shear rate. The zero-shear viscosity was 1–100 MPa·s. In some saliva samples a sharp yield point was observed