AQUEOUS EXTRACTION OF OIL AND PROTEIN FROM SOYBEAN AND LUPIN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study compares the effects of extrusion pretreatment and protease addition during aqueous extraction processing (AEP) of soybean and lupin flakes. AEP of flakes resulted in the lowest yields of oil (56%), protein (71%) and [cream + free oil] (8%) for soybean, while for lupin, yields were 48, 69 and 2%, respectively. AEP protein extraction yields were decreased by extrusion pretreatment, but this pretreatment improved enzymatic action, increasing protein extractability from soybean and lupin by 47 and 26%, respectively. For both protein crops, enzyme-assisted AEP (EAEP) of extruded flakes yielded the highest oil, protein and [cream + free oil] yields, which were 96, 85 21%, respectively, for soybean. Yields for lupin were 81, 77 and 10%, respectively. Extrusion followed by enzyme addition positively impacted demulsification yield, the creams from EAEP of soybean and lupin extruded flakes being the less stable toward enzymatic demulsification. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The vegetable oil industry is looking for alternatives to the traditional solvent extraction of oil-bearing seeds, and there is a need to increase the inefficient conventional aqueous extraction of protein from residual defatted meal, a by-product of the oil extraction process. The concept of enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) has been successfully developed for extruded soybean material, but its efficiency on other oil-bearing seeds still needs to be demonstrated. By determining the oil and protein extraction yields recovered during EAEP of extruded lupin flakes, the feasibility of transferring this process from soybean to other oilseeds will be established.