Abstract
Silk proteins have many advantageous components including proteins and pigments. The proteins—sericin and fibroin—have been widely studied for medical applications due to their good physiochemical properties and biological activities. Various strains of cocoon display different compositions such as amino-acid profiles and levels of antioxidant activity. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to find a suitable silk protein extraction method to obtain products with chemical and biological properties suitable as functional foods in two strains of Bombyx mori silk cocoon (Nangsew strains; yellow cocoon) and Samia ricini silk cocoon (Eri strains; white cocoon) extracted by water at 100 °C for 2, 4, 6 and 8 h. The results showed that Nangsew strains extracted for 6 h contained the highest amounts of protein, amino acids, total phenolics (TPC) and total flavonoids (TFC), plus DPPH radical-scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging capacity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), anti-glycation, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition. The longer extraction time produced higher concentrations of amino acids, contributing to sweet and umami tastes in both silk strains. It seemed that the bitterness decreased as the extraction time increased, resulting in improvements in the sweetness and umami of silk-protein extracts.
Highlights
Silk is a natural protein fiber produced from silkworm (Bombyx mori) cocoons
The Silk-Protein Extracts (SPE) of the two strains of silkworm consisted of all ten essential amino acids and eight non-essential amino acids which are shown in Tables 1 and 2
The amino-acid compositions and contents were improved with longer extraction times, except after six hours in both strains
Summary
Silk is a natural protein fiber produced from silkworm (Bombyx mori) cocoons. It consists of 70–80% of a two-bundled fibrous protein called fibroin and 20–30% of an amorphous matrix of a water-soluble globular protein called ‘sericin’ which functions as a gum to bond the two fibroin filaments together [1]. The pigments in silk cocoons have antioxidant activities. The compounds in these pigments depend on both the food taken by the larvae (mulberry leaves, cassava leaves, etc.) and the silkworm strain involved [7]. Yellow-green cocoon shells contain various flavanol compounds with antioxidant activity [8]
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