Abstract
Combination of dry and aqueous fractionation is investigated to obtain protein-rich fractions from quinoa in a milder and more sustainable way compared to conventional wet fractionation. Dry fractionation of quinoa involved milling and subsequent air classification, generating a protein-enriched embryo fraction. Subsequently, this fraction was milled, suspended, and further fractionated by aqueous phase separation. The efficiency of aqueous phase separation could be improved by addition of NaCl (0.5 M). Finally, the top aqueous phase was decanted and ultrafiltered, resulting in a protein purity of 59.4 w/dw% for the 0.5 M NaCl-protein solution and a protein yield (gram protein obtained/gram protein in seed) of 62.0 %. Having used 98 % less water compared to conventional wet extraction, the hybrid dry and aqueous fractionation is a promising method for industry to create value from quinoa in a more economic and sustainable friendly way while minimizing the impact on quinoa’s native protein functionality.
Highlights
The nutritional properties of quinoa are unique since it contains all essential amino acids, trace elements, and vitamins (B6, folate, riboflavin, and niacin) (Abugoch 2009)
We succeeded in developing a hybrid separation process for quinoa to obtain high protein-rich fractions
The method proposed in the present study can provide a protein concentrate with a purity of 59 w/dw% and a protein yield of 61 %
Summary
The nutritional properties of quinoa are unique since it contains all essential amino acids, trace elements, and vitamins (B6, folate, riboflavin, and niacin) (Abugoch 2009). To stimulate more extensive use and create added value of (sweet) quinoa in the production of foods, ingredients derived from quinoa by fractionation have been explored by several studies, in particular, the production of protein isolates (Brinegar and Goundan 1993; Brinegar et al 1996; Chauhan et al 1999; Aluko and Monu 2003; Lindeboom 2005; Abugoch et al 2008; Aora and Alvarado 2009; Valenzuela et al 2013; Föste et al 2015; Avila Ruiz et al 2016a, b) In all these studies, the conventional wet fractionation method was applied. This method consumes large amounts of water and energy and often leads to denaturation of the protein (Schutyser and van der Goot 2011)
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