Effects of ultrasonic and graft treatments on grafting degree, structure, functionality, and digestibility of rapeseed protein isolate-dextran conjugates

Abstract Rapeseed protein isolate (RPI) and dextran conjugates were prepared by traditional and ultrasonic assisted wet-heating. The effects on the grafting degree ( GD ), structure, functionality, and digestibility of conjugates were studied. Ultrasonic frequency, temperature, and time all significantly affected the GD . Under the optimum conditions (temperature of 90 °C and time of 60 min), compared to traditional wet-heating, ultrasonic treatment at 28 kHz significantly increased the GD by 2.12 times. Compared to RPI, surface hydrophobicities of conjugates were significantly decreased by graft and ultrasonic treatments. Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and amino acid composition results confirmed that traditional graft reaction involved cysteine (Cys) and lysine (Lys) whereas the ultrasonic assisted one involved only Cys. Both were from the 12S globulin subunit and cruciferin. Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT-IR) and circular dichroism (CD) results showed that graft treatment significantly changed secondary structure and ultrasonic treatment had the greatest impact on the decrease in the β-sheet (19.1%) and the increase in the random coil (49.6%). Graft and ultrasonic treatments both made surface structure looser and more porous. The two treatments also caused molecular weight to become bigger, and ultrasonic treatment had the greatest effect on the increase (68.2%) in 110–20.5 kDa. Structural modifications of RPI by grafting to dextran caused improvements of solubility (at pH 5–6), emulsifying activity (at pH 4–10), emulsion stability (at pH 4–5 and 9–10), and thermal stability (at temperature 90–100 °C). The digestibility of conjugates was decreased by graft and ultrasonic treatments and the conjugates were mainly digested in the intestinal phase. The ultrasonic assisted wet-heating was an efficient and safe method for producing RPI-dextran conjugates and improving the utilization value of rapeseed meal.