Introduction: Engineering of food proteins with improved functional properties and higher resistance to heat is the main goal of food scientists. Food technologists are always seeking for innovative, simple and effective methods to manipulate proteins, hence natural modification has had the most attention in last decades. One of the natural ways used for protein modifications isMaillard grafting reaction. Maillard reaction as a consequence of covalentbindingbetween the available amino groups of the proteins and carbonyl containing moiety of the polysaccharides, causes a loss in free amino group content of the mixture that can be measured through different methods. Protein-polysaccharide hybrids, as a result of dry heating of two biopolymers mixture under controlled reaction conditions, cause the emergence of conjugates with novel functionalities.Selecting appropriate reaction conditions has a significant impact on the properties of the final conjugates. Among the factors affecting the degree of conjugation, temperature, pH and incubation time have considerable roles in determining the degree of conjugation. There are various methods by which conjugation degree can be assessed and factors such as accuracy, cost, accessibility and etc. must be considered when selecting a measuring method. Therefoe, in this study the effect of different Maillard reaction conditions on the conjugation degree of soy proteins-dextran heated mixtures have been investigated. In addition, the glycation degree was compared and reported by both OPA assay and UV absorbance methods.
Materials and methods: Soy proteins–dextran conjugates were prepared as described later. First, soy proteins and dextran were mixed with phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH: 8.5 and 7) and 1 to 4 ratio of protein to polysaccharide. After mixing and incubating at ambient temperature for some hours, solutions were frozen at –80 ℃ and freeze dried. Then, the lyophilized powder was incubated at 40 ℃ for 0, 4, 8, 24 hours and 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 days, at 60 ℃ for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 days and at 80 ℃ for 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 48 hours, under the 79 percent relative humidity in presence of saturated KBr. For each treatment a non conjugated sample was prepared in the exact same condition. Conjugation of proteins to polysaccharides was monitored by two methods (OPA assay and UV absorbance). Determining degree of glycation by OPA method was done as follows, in this procedure the level of available amino groups was estimated using the ortho- phthaldialdehyde (OPA) reagent, the absorbance was measured at 340 nm and degree of glycation was measured using a formula. To investigate the UV absorption of conjugated proteins, the samples were diluted using distilled water and the absorption was read using a UV-visible spectrophotometer.
Results & Discussion: Covalent linkage between amino group of proteins and carbonyl group of polysaccharides causes depletion in the amount of available amino groups. The extent of soy proteins-dextran conjugation under various Maillard reaction conditions was evaluated by the reduction of available amino groups of proteins, the more reduction in amount of amino groups, the more conjugation between protein and polysaccharide. OPA results showed that, in the samples heated at 40 °C and 80 °C (at both pH 7 and 8.5), the amount of free amino groups slightly reduced compared to 60 °C heated samples. The disappearance of available amino groups at 60°C was faster than other temperatures and formation of conjugates in this temperature was more successful. A stepwise reduction in free amino group content observed with increasing incubation time. When soy proteins were incubated at pH 8.5 for 8 days at 60 °C, a considerable decrease in available amino group contents occurred. UV absorption results showed similar trend of changes in OPA method. Increasing UV absorption is due to the intermediate Maillard reaction products (MRP). Increasing incubation time, temperature and pH cause a significant increase in UV absorbance. Increasing UV absorption with increasing heating time indicates the fact that Maillard reaction products (MRP) formation is more favorable at alkaline pH. Data of UV absorption are a proper evidence for OPA assay results.
Conclusion: As a conclusion, both OPA assay and UV absorption methods are cost effective, accurate and simple methods which can represent valuable information concerning the Maillard conjugation. |
