Effects of hydrodynamic cavitation at different pH values on the physicochemical properties and aggregation behavior of soybean glycinin
Yucheng Hou, Feng Yang, Jinxuan Cao, Yongchun Huang, Chunzhi Li, Jiayun Li, Xian’e Ren
Abstract
Soybean protein, especially glycinin, easily forms aggregates, limiting its application in some scenarios. In this research, the effects of different hydrodynamic cavitation (HC; 550 W for 0, 10 and 30 min) treatments on soybean glycinin aggregation at different pH values (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10) were investigated. At the five pH values, HC decreased the emulsifying activity index with increasing HC treatment time; however, the effects on the particle size, surface hydrophobicity (H0), solubility and emulsifying stability index (ESI) varied. Notably, HC had more significant effect on the physicochemical structure and functional properties at pH 6 than the other four pH because of different conformational structure, enhancing glycinin's H0 (from 850.95 ± 59.03 to 988.43 ± 64.68), solubility (from 21.85 ± 0.23 to 63.62 ± 1.18 g/100 g), and ESI (from 58.39 ± 7.46 to 127.74 ± 3.43 min). Moreover, HC influenced glycinin aggregation, as demonstrated by the intrinsic fluorescence spectra and circular dichroism results. In conclusion, HC changed the aggregation behavior and improved the functional properties of glycinin, indicating that HC is a promising technique to improve functional properties and provides a reference for the application of soybean protein in the food industry.