Ultrasound-assisted extraction process for recovery of RuBisCO proteins from pumpkin leaves

Abstract

Proteins are an essential component of the human diet and effectively are provided from both animal and plant sources. Sourcing ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) from green biomass such as pumpkin leaves, a by-product of the oil industry, is a promising tool for obtaining protein with an excellent nutritional profile under the green biorafinery concept, that can be used as a substitute for animal proteins. This study provides the results regarding the implementation of ultrasound-assisted processing (UAP) in the protein extraction from pumpkin leaves. UAP for recovery of RuBisCO proteins was optimized by varing the solvent-to-sample ratio, solvent pH, ultrasound amplitudes and time. UAP appears to have a strong potential for recovering RuBisCO protein from pumpkin leaves, as it was highly influenced by the solvent-to-sample ratio along with UAP amplitude and time.

Proteini životinjskog i biljnog porekla čine osnovne namirnice ljudske ishrane. Prema konceptu zelene biorafinerije, izolovanje RuBisCO proteina (ribuloza-1,5-bisfosfat karboksilaza/oksigenaze) iz zelene biomase kakva je lišće bundeve, nusproizvod industrije prerade uljarica, je obećavajući pristup za dobijanje proteina sa visokom nutritivnom vrednošću koje je moguće koristiti kao zamenu za proteine životinjskog porekla. U ovom radu, ultrazvučno potpomognutim procesom ekstrakcije izolovani su proteini iz lišća bundeve. Ultrazvučni proces ekstrakcije RuBisCO proteina optimizovan je variranjem odnosa rastvarač-uzorak, pH rastvarača, vremena trajanja i amplitude ultrazvuka. Ultrazvuk je ispoljio veliki pozitivan efekat na izolovanje RuBisCO proteina iz lišća bundeve, na šta je u najvećoj meri tokom optimizacije procesa uticao odnos rastvaračuzorak, kao i amplituda i vreme ultrazvuka.