Journal Articles
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Item Heat-induced modifications of pea protein: Implications for solubility and digestion behaviour(Elsevier B.V., 2025-08-20) Li D; Ma Y; Acevedo-Fani A; Lu W; Singh H; Ye APlant proteins have become increasingly desirable due to their sustainability and proposed health benefits. This study initially examined the effects of heat treatment on the solubility of pea protein (PP) in a 3 % (w/w) protein solution, applying heat from 65 °C to 95 °C for varying durations across pH conditions ranging from 5.5 to 7.8. Subsequently, an advanced dynamic gastric digestion model—the Human Gastric Simulator—was employed to examine the in vitro gastric digestion behaviours of heat-treated and untreated PP. Results suggest that heat treatment reduces the protein aggregate size and enhances PP solubility, potentially due to a decrease in α-helix and β-turn structures or an increase in β-sheet content, as determined via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Additionally, heat treatment elevated the surface hydrophobicity and free sulfhydryl group concentration of PP. During in vitro dynamic gastric digestion with pepsin, PP underwent notable structural and physical stability modifications. Unheated and heated PP exhibited small particles in the digesta and remained unaggregated throughout digestion. However, the heat-treated PP showed a smaller particle size during gastric digestion and a greater hydrolysis rate than the unheated protein. This study systematically evaluates the solubility and digestion behaviour of PP subjected to food processing conditions, highlighting its stability and structural changes that may influence the delivery of macronutrients from the stomach to the next phase of digestion.Item Heat-induced dissociation and association of proteins in hempseed protein bodies(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-10) Do DT; Ye A; Singh H; Acevedo-Fani AProtein bodies (PBs) are naturally occurring storage organelles in seeds. In hempseeds, the major storage proteins, including edestin (11S globulin) and albumin, are primarily located in the crystalloids and proteinaceous matrices of hemp protein bodies (HPBs), respectively. The retention of native PB structures in flours and dry-fractionated protein ingredients has important implications for protein functionality and digestibility, especially when heat treatment is applied during processing. While the thermal behaviour of hempseed proteins has been studied in protein isolate systems, to the best of our knowledge, it has not yet been explored in HPB systems. In this study, we isolated native HPBs using an enzymatic method. Aqueous suspensions of HPBs (4 % protein, w/w) were heated at selected temperatures (60–100 °C) and pH 7 for 20 min, followed by hydrolysis with trypsin at pH 7 and 37 °C for 120 min. The thermal aggregation of proteins in HPBs was characterised using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The hydrolysis of HPBs by trypsin was monitored over 120 min by measuring the degree of protein hydrolysis (DH) and analysing SDS-PAGE. Aggregation of edestin in HPBs, primarily driven by disulfide bond formation, occurred upon heating, most noticeably at temperatures above 80 °C. Heating increased DH and altered protein degradation patterns of both acidic and basic subunits of edestin. This may be related to conformational changes in the HPB structure resulting from heat-induced dissociation-association of multiple HPB protein fractions, including 11S edestin, 7S globulin, and 2S albumin. These findings contribute to our understanding of the structure-hydrolysis relationships of HPBs, potentially leading to their use as a new plant-based material for food applications.Item Kinetics of pepsin-induced hydrolysis and the coagulation of milk proteins(Elsevier Inc and the Federation of Animal Science Societies on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association, 2022-02) Yang M; Ye A; Yang Z; Everett DW; Gilbert EP; Singh HHydrolysis-induced coagulation of casein micelles by pepsin occurs during the digestion of milk. In this study, the effect of pH (6.7–5.3) and pepsin concentration (0.110–2.75 U/mL) on the hydrolysis of κ-casein and the coagulation of the casein micelles in bovine skim milk was investigated at 37°C using reverse-phase HPLC, oscillatory rheology, and confocal laser scanning microscopy. The hydrolysis of κ-casein followed a combined kinetic model of first-order hydrolysis and putative pepsin denaturation. The hydrolysis rate increased with increasing pepsin concentration at a given pH, was pH dependent, and reached a maximum at pH ~6.0. Both the increase in pepsin concentration and decrease in pH resulted in a shorter coagulation time. The extent of κ-casein hydrolysis required for coagulation was independent of the pepsin concentration at a given pH and, because of the lower electrostatic repulsion between para-casein micelles at lower pH, decreased markedly from ~73% to ~33% when pH decreased from 6.3 to 5.3. In addition, the rheological properties and the microstructures of the coagulum were markedly affected by the pH and the pepsin concentration. The knowledge obtained from this study provides further understanding on the mechanism of milk coagulation, occurring at the initial stage of transiting into gastric conditions with high pH and low pepsin concentration.Item Effect of Gel Structure on the In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion Behaviour of Whey Protein Emulsion Gels and the Bioaccessibility of Capsaicinoids(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-03-04) Luo N; Ye A; Wolber FM; Singh H; Kontominas MGThis study investigated the effect of gel structure on the digestion of heat-set whey protein emulsion gels containing capsaicinoids (CAP), including the bioaccessibility of CAP. Upon heat treatment at 90 °C, whey protein emulsion gels containing CAP (10 wt% whey protein isolate, 20 wt% soybean oil, 0.02 wt% CAP) with different structures and gel mechanical strengths were formed by varying ionic strength. The hard gel (i.e., oil droplet size d4,3 ~ 0.5 μm, 200 mM NaCl), with compact particulate gel structure, led to slower disintegration of the gel particles and slower hydrolysis of the whey proteins during gastric digestion compared with the soft gel (i.e., d4,3 ~ 0.5 μm, 10 mM NaCl). The oil droplets started to coalesce after 60 min of gastric digestion in the soft gel, whereas minor oil droplet coalescence was observed for the hard gel at the end of the gastric digestion. In general, during intestinal digestion, the gastric digesta from the hard gel was disintegrated more slowly than that from the soft gel. A power-law fit between the bioaccessibility of CAP (Y) and the extent of lipid digestion (X) was established: Y = 49.2 × (X - 305.3)0.104, with R2 = 0.84. A greater extent of lipid digestion would lead to greater release of CAP from the food matrix; also, more lipolytic products would be produced and would participate in micelle formation, which would help to solubilize the released CAP and therefore result in their higher bioaccessibility.