Functional improvements in bovine serum albumin-fucoidan conjugate through the Maillard reaction

The solubility, thermal stability, surface activity and emulsifying properties of native bovine serum albumin (BSA), heat-treated BSA, a BSA-fucoidan mixture, and a BSA-fucoidan conjugate were assessed. Covalent linkage of BSA with fucoidan resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) high solubility after heating at 90 °C for 15 min, particularly at pH 5. The BSA-fucoidan conjugate had a high melting temperature (97.09 ± 1.45 °C), as found by differential scanning calorimetry, indicating strong heat stability and high resistance to denaturation. Although the attachment of fucoidan, a non-surface-active hydrophilic polysaccharide, gave no change in the surface activity, the emulsifying activity and the emulsion stability of the conjugate at pH 5 were superior to those of native BSA, heat-treated BSA, and the BSA-fucoidan mixture. Conclusively, fucoidan attachment enhanced the solubility, thermal stability and emulsifying properties of the protein molecules with negative charge distribution and steric stabilization.