Enhanced foaming properties of lactoferrin by forming functional complexes with ginsenoside Re and Rb1

Abstract

Considering the urgent demands of consumers for more all-natural food alternatives and the development trend of healthy times, seeking for new types foam and foam-forming healthcare food biomacromolecules is highly required to food valorization and industry. Herein, the enhanced foaming properties of bovine lactoferrin (LF) after forming complexes with ginsenoside Re (Re) and ginsenoside Rb1 (Rb1) was confirmed, while the interaction mechanism between LF and Re/Rb1 was also revealed. Detailly, multi-spectroscopy (absorption, fluorescence/3D fluorescence, CD spectroscopy), thermodynamic analysis and molecular docking results indicated that the interaction between LF and Re/Rb1 is mainly driven by hydrogen bonds and van der Walls forces accompanied by a conformational change of LF, forming LF-Re and LF-Rb1 complexes with a ratio of 1:1. Moreover, the foamability of LF (141%, LF: Re = 1 : 0, molar ratio) increased to be 172% (LF: Re = 1 : 10) and 200.67% (LF: Re = 1 : 20) after forming complexes with Re, while the foamability of LF (150%, LF: Rb1 = 1 : 0) increased to be 171.67% (LF: Rb1 = 1 : 10) and 189.5% (LF: Rb1 = 1 : 20) after forming complexes with Rb1. This work laid the groundwork for promoting the development of all-natural foam agents, also provided a feasible strategy to improve the applications of functional molecules in food valorization and industry.