Nutritional and functional characteristics of gingerbread plum (Neocarya macrophylla): an underutilized oilseed

Abstract

The In-vitro protein digestibility, protein nutritional quality and functional characteristics (protein solubility, water/oil binding capacity, emulsifying capacity and foaming capacity) of gingerbread plum and peanut seed flour were studied. Among the nutritional parameters, the proportion of essential amino acids to total amino acids (E/T), amino acid scores (AAS) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) were studied. Defatted gingerbread plum seed meal (DGPSM) showed a high nutritional quality with PER and AAS values of 2.35 and 65.53 respectively. The solubility profile of DGPSM was similar to that of defatted peanut meal (DPM), with minimum solubility observed at pH 4 and maximum solubility at pH 10 and higher. Water and oil holding capacities were 3.01 and 3.12; 2.96 and 3.11 g/g for DGPSM and DPM respectively. DGPSM showed good foaming capacity (145 mL /100 mL) and stability (110 mL /100 mL) even after 60 min at room temperature. The emulsifying capacity of DGPSM was 29%. Bulk densities were 0.30 and 0.28 g/mL for DGPSM and DPM respectively. Finally, DGPSM was easily hydrolyzed by trypsin in vitro. These results show that DGPSM has functional properties that may find applications in the food industry.

Keywords

• amino acids
• functional properties
• gingerbread plum
• in vitro protein digestibility
• nutritional quality
• oilseed