Antioxidant Mechanism of Yam Saponin, Hesperidin, Ginger Extract on Oxidative Chicken Myofibrillar Protein

Abstract

The antioxidant mechanism of three plant extracts on the oxidative myofibrillar proteins oxidized by Fe3+/H2O2 at 0 °C for 12 h was analyzed. These plant extracts were added to myofibrillar proteins with the concentrations of 0.5 and 1 mg/mL Besides, the group without added extracts was adopted as controls. Total sulfhydryl content, carbonyls, surface hydrophobicity, and protein cross-linking, protein gel properties were analyzed. In the meantime, the oxidized suspensions were processed as protein gels. Then, the water-holding capacity and the hardness of gels were analyzed. The resulted showed that the suspensions of three plant extracts and the oxidized myofibrillar proteins led to a significant decrease in surface hydrophobicity, carbonyls and gel hardness of the sulfhydryl group, while three plant extracts promoted aggregation of the myofibrillar proteins and increased water-holding capacity of gels compared with that of the control. The scanning electron microscope showed that the gels structure of the three extracts were obviously better than that of the control group, and the ginger group was the best.Yam saponin exhibited the best antioxidant effect, followed by ginger extract and hesperidin.