Study of the functional properties of canola protein concentrates and isolates extracted by electro-activated solutions as non-invasive extraction method

This study compared the functional properties of canola protein isolates and concentrates produced by electro-activated solutions and conventional alkaline extraction. In the case of the isolates, the results showed no significant difference in terms of protein solubility, surface hydrophobicity, water absorption and fat absorption capacity. However, for the protein concentrates, higher fat absorption capacity was observed for the proteins extracted by electro-activated solutions. Moreover, some surface active properties were also enhanced, notably higher emulsion activity index and smaller droplet size were observed for the proteins extracted by the electro-activation method. In all cases, the functional properties were strongly dependent on the pH of the medium and the behavior of the isolates and concentrates was quite different in the pH range close to isoelectric point, in neutral and alkaline regions. For all the functionalities, generally the results showed that the concentrates were more effective at pH 4, whereas isolates performed better at pH 7 and pH 9.