Abstract
The present work used water-soluble protein concentrates from the microalga Tetradesmus obliquus to stabilize sunflower oil emulsions. Microalgal cells were disrupted by sonication, and proteins were separated from the biomass using two methods, isoelectric and solvent precipitations. The protein extracts were concentrated by lyophilization, and the concentrates were used to produce emulsions with three amounts of Tetradesmus obliquus protein concentrate (TobPC) (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0% w/v). Emulsions were homogenized through sonication and characterized for creaming index, optical microscopy, size distribution, ζ-potential, and rheology. Isoelectric precipitation resulted in TobPC with a high protein content (51.46 ± 2.37%) and a better dispersibility profile. Emulsion stability was higher for both the isoelectric TobPC and control systems than for the TobPC solvent. Solvent TobPC does not efficiently stabilize emulsions at low protein concentrations that showed microscopically larger oil droplets and flocculation spots. A high phase separation velocity was observed for solvent TobPC, probably due to the higher hydrodynamic droplet diameters. The increase in TobPC content in the emulsions resulted in more stable emulsions for all samples. Therefore, Tetradesmus obliquus protein concentrates are a potential emulsifying agent.
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Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- AOAC:
-
Association of official agricultural chemists
- Cc:
-
Concentrated protein without precipitation and dried by lyophilization—control
- Ci:
-
Concentrated protein by isoelectric precipitation and dried by lyophilization
- Cs:
-
Concentrated protein by solvent precipitation and dried by lyophilization
- CInd:
-
Creaming index
- DLS:
-
Dynamic light scattering
- HCl:
-
Hydrogen chloride
- He:
-
Emulsion's total height (cm)
- Hs:
-
Serum layer height (cm)
- IP:
-
Isoelectric point
- LHC:
-
Light-harvesting complex
- pH:
-
Potential of hydrogen
- NaOH:
-
Sodium hydroxide
- O/W:
-
Oil-in-water emulsion
- PDI:
-
Polydispersity index
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- SDS:
-
Sodium dodecyl sulfate
- SDS‒PAGE:
-
Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
- TobPC:
-
Tetradesmus obliquus Protein concentrate
- Tris:
-
Tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane; 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl) propane-1,3-diol)
- UV‒Vis:
-
Ultraviolet‒visible
- γ:
-
Shear rate (s−1)
- ζ-potential:
-
Zeta potential
- k:
-
Consistency index (Pa s)
- τ:
-
Shear stress (Pa)
- τ0 :
-
Residual stress (Pa)
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for the scholarship to VSL, Dr. Maurício de Oliveira Leite, and the Nucleus of Microscopy and Microanalysis of UFV for their technical assistance.
Funding
This study was financially supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Minas Gerais State Research Support Foundation (FAPEMIG), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and the PETROBRAS (Petróleo Brasileiro S/A).
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VSL conceived, carried out the experiments (EX), wrote, edited, and proofread the manuscript (MS); DRBO conceived EX, supervised the work, wrote, corrected, and proofread the MS; CASS conceived EX, formal data analysis, corrected and proofread the MS; RCS conceived EX, formal rheology analysis, corrected and proofread the MS; NFFS formal emulsion analysis and corrected the MS; EBO formal ultrasound analysis and corrected the MS; MAM formal lyophilization analysis and corrected the MS; JSRC conceived EX, supervised the work, corrected, edited, and proofread the MS.
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Lima, V.S., de Oliveira, D.R.B., da Silva, C.A.S. et al. Stabilization of oil–water emulsions with protein concentrates from the microalga Tetradesmus obliquus. J Food Sci Technol 60, 797–808 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-023-05666-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-023-05666-7