Abstract:
Food manufacturers are constantly searching for natural, high quality and low-cost food ingredients from plant sources. Soy-based products like milk and yogurt alternatives are widely used. However, other plant raw materials should be considered to increase the variety of plant derived protein concentrates, protein isolates, and dairy alternatives. To this end, lupinus albus (gibito) which is protein-rich legume is a promising candidate. The current study is the production and characterization of protein isolates from lupin albus seed. Nowadays, modern processing techniques like alkaline extraction, salt extraction and air classification are applied to separate the protein fraction from the lupin seed. By this research study, de-hulled lupin flour was solubilized in salt solution of (0.1M, 0.2M, 0.3M, 0.4M) with continuous heating at a temperature of ( 40℃, 50℃, 60℃, 70℃) and stirring to see the combined effect of salt concentration and temperature on the production of protein isolate. Thus, characterization of raw lupin seed, production of protein isolate, characterization of lupin protein isolate and comparison of the crude protein content of lupin protein isolate with early produced legume protein isolate protein content were the main points considered by this study. Proximate analysis of lupin albus results a protein content of 42.79% and a lower crude fat composition of 8.44%. The salt extraction of protein isolate from lupin albus at a varying temperature results a maximum protein isolate yield of 27.61% (p<0.05) at extraction conditions of 0.3M NaCl and temperature of 50℃. This results a recovery of 49.27% crude protein in the raw material, lupin albus seed. The salt concentration and temperature variation interaction effects were analysed by Design Expert 11.1.2.0 x64 software. Using response surface method the optimum lupin protein isolate was 5.405g from 20g de-hulled lupin albus seed flour at 0.315M NaCl solution and temperature of 57.225℃. The lupin protein isolate obtained by this study showed crude protein content of 76.35% and maximum solubility of 71.5% (at pH7), water holding capacity and oil holding capacity of 2.2ml/g and 3.35ml/g respectively. It also has a foaming capacity of 75.08% and emulsion capacity of 66.76%. The lower composition of crude fat in the lupin albus seed made the extraction process less energy intensive than commercial soybean processing. So processing of lupin albus for the production of protein isolate followed by this research study gives a good information to intensify the advantages of this high yield and low cost raw material in daily consumed foods like shiro, bread, plant milk products, coffee milk (makiato) by blending with other related food materials.