A promising Artemisia capillaris Thunb. Leaf proteins with high nutrition, applicable function and excellent antioxidant activity

Wen-Lu Wei; Wen-Jun Wang; Hui Chen; Su-Yun Lin; Qiu-Shui Luo; Jian-Ming Li; Jin Yan; Ling-Li Chen

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2024.101153

A promising Artemisia capillaris Thunb. Leaf proteins with high nutrition, applicable function and excellent antioxidant activity

Food Chem X. 2024 Jan 21:21:101153. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2024.101153. eCollection 2024 Mar 30.

Authors

Wen-Lu Wei¹, Wen-Jun Wang¹, Hui Chen¹, Su-Yun Lin¹, Qiu-Shui Luo¹, Jian-Ming Li¹, Jin Yan¹, Ling-Li Chen¹

Affiliation

¹ Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Natural Products and Functional Food, College of Food Science and Engineering, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China.

Abstract

The nutritional and functional properties of leaf proteins is a decisive factor for their use in food. This work was aimed to extract defatted Artemisia capillaris Thunb. (ACD) leaf proteins (ACLP), and assess ACLP nutritional quality, functional properties and in vitro antioxidant activity, as well characterize the structure. ACLP had a balanced amino acid profile and high bioavailability (protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) 99.29 %). Solubility, foaming capacity and emulsifying ability of ACLP correlated positively with pH. Water and oil holding capacity were increased with temperature. Gel electrophoresis shown the protein molecular size was mainly ∼25 kDa, and random coil was the mainly secondary structure while β-sheet was dominant regular conformation as indicated by circular dichroism (CD). ACLP performed in vitro antioxidant activity which was better after digestion. All data implied ACLP met the WHO/FAO protein quality expectations and had application potential in food.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity; Artemisia capillaris Thunb. leaf protein; Functional properties; In vitro digestibility; Nutritional quality; Structural characterization.