2017
Improvement of Soybean Protein Functionality Using Chemical and Nanotechnology as Approaches
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Contributor/Checkoff:
Maryland Soybean Board
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
(none assigned)
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Qin Wang, University of Maryland
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Maryland Soybean Board
$10,000
Institution Funded:
University of Maryland
$10,000
Brief Project Summary:

This project has the goal of creating the next generation of capsules made of soy. The objective is the successful fabrication of soy glycinin microcapsules based on a nanotechnology process of NaCl-induced microphase separation with subsequent heating. The loading amounts are no longer limited by the concentration of compounds in bulk solution, and hydrophilic compounds can be successfully encapsulated in large quantities by simple alteration of the pH value. This spontaneous deposition technique can greatly improve the loading efficiency and can be considered for the encapsulation of a variety of materials. This has not been found with any other protein microcapsules.

Key Benefactors:
farmers, agronomists, Extension agents

Information And Results
Project Deliverables

A manuscript was published in the food science journal, Langmuir, detailing the process of fabricating soy glycinin microcapsules. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b01559

Final Project Results

Update:
We have successfully fabricated the soy glycinin microcapsules based on the NaCl induced microphase separation with subsequent heating. The permeability of soy glycinin microcapsules showed not only pH and ionic strength responsive but also a spontaneous accumulation effect for compounds carrying opposite charge which have not been found with any other protein microcapsules. The possible mechanism of the permeability change under different conditions was also discussed. By tuning the permeability of the microcapsules, FITC-dextran was successfully encapsulated.

Soy glycinin microcapsules fabricated by heating salt-induced microphase-separated dispersion showed good stability in a wide pH range. It swelled at pH > 11 and pH < 3, caused by the strong electrostatic repulsion when pH was far away from the isoionic point. But it dissociated when pH > 11 which was supposed to be caused by the dissociation of the disulfide bonds that stabilized the microcapsule. Both increasing the ionic strength and adjusting pH away from neutral led to an increased roughness of the microcapsule surface accompanied by an increased permeability.

By adjusting ionic strength or pH, FITC-dextran was successfully encapsulated which did not leak out in salt-free neutral solution. Increasing the ionic strength or pH, the encapsulated FITC-dextran could be released. The encapsulation efficiency was significantly higher by adjusting pH towards acid condition where the microcapsules showed accumulation effect for FITC-dextran which was due to the electrostatic attraction between FITC-dextran and the remaining glycinin inside the microcapsules. By using the spontaneous self-accumulation technique, the loading amount was no longer limited by the concentration of compounds in bulk solution and hydrophilic compounds can be successfully encapsulated in large quantity by simple alteration of the pH value. Such spontaneous deposition technique greatly improves the loading efficiency and can be considered for the encapsulation of a variety of materials. These results showed that soy glycinin has a great potential to be used as the wall material to fabricate hollow microcapsules that could find applications in biomedicine and food industry.

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The project "Improvement of Soybean Protein Functionality Using Chemical and Nanotechnology as Approaches" was able to successful make hollow microcapsules from soy proteins. These results showed that soy glycinin has a great potential to be used as the wall material to fabricate hollow microcapsules that could find applications in biomedicine and the food industry.

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.