María Luisa Marina

Composition and characterization of soyabean and related products

Soyabean contains about 48 to 50% proteins. Among these, storage proteins are predominant. 7S and 11S globulins are two storage proteins that constitute 80% of the total protein content in soyabean. Moreover, there are other less abundant storage proteins such as 2S, 9S, and 15S globulins. In addition to globulins, enzymes, protease inhibitors (Kunitz and Bowman-Birk), lectin, and other complete the soya protein content. Different methods exist to characterize soya proteins. These methods involve (1) an isolation of proteins from soya commercial products and (2) the use of analytical techniques for protein determination. Soya proteins may interact with other soya components such as minerals, phytic acid, ascorbic acid, and fiber. These interactions, which depend on soya processing and treatment, can decrease the bioavailability of minerals and proteins. Swelling, solubility, viscosity, and capacity to form a gel, an emulsion, or a foam are the main functional properties of soyabean. They are responsible for the wide use of soya in industrial processes.

CE‐TOF MS analysis of complex protein hydrolyzates from genetically modified soybeans – A tool for foodomics

A CE‐TOF MS proteomic approach was applied for the analysis of hydrolyzates from complex soybean protein mixtures. After CE‐TOF MS method development, the new approach provided the simultaneous analysis of more than 150 peptides from the soybean protein fraction soluble in ACN‐water (80/20 v/v). The method is fast (about 30 min of analysis per sample) and is characterized by a relatively low running cost. The approach was used to study the substantial equivalence between a genetically modified variety of soybean compared with its traditional counterpart. No significant differences were found between the two studied soybeans based on the protein fraction studied. The capacity of the CE‐TOF MS method to analyze complex mixtures of peptides in short times opens interesting possibilities in the growing Foodomics area.

Vegetable foods: A cheap source of proteins and peptides with antihypertensive, antioxidant, and other less occurrence bioactivities

Despite less explored than foods from animal origin, plant derived foods also contain biologically active proteins and peptides. Bioactive peptides can be present as an independent entity in the food or, more frequently, can be in a latent state as part of the sequence of a protein. Release from that protein requires protein hydrolysis by enzymatic digestion, fermentation or autolysis. Different methodologies have been used to test proteins and peptides bioactivities. Fractionation, separation, and identification techniques have also been employed for the isolation and identification of bioactive proteins or peptides. In this work, proteins and peptides from plant derived foods exerting antihypertensive, antioxidant, hypocholesterolemic, antithrombotic, and immunostimulating capacities or ability to reduce food intake have been reviewed.

Analysis of Soyabean Proteins in Meat Products: A Review

Dr. Lourdes Amigo, Instituto de Fermentaciones, Industriales (CSIC), Juan de la Cierva, 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain The use of soyabean proteins as meat extenders has spread significantly due to the interesting nutritional and functional properties that are present in soyabean proteins. Together with these, health and economical reasons are the major causes for the addition of soyabean proteins to meat products. Nevertheless, despite the good properties associated to soyabean proteins, there are many countries in which the addition of these proteins is forbidden or in which the addition of soyabean proteins is allowed up to a certain extent. Thus, the need of analytical methods enabling the detection of added soyabean proteins in meat products is obvious. Microscopic, electrophoretic, immunologic, and chromatographic methods are the most widely used for this purpose. However, the detection of soyabean proteins in meat products presents difficulties related to the composition (meat species, meat quality, soyabean protein source, presence of other non-meat proteins, etc.) and the processing of the meat products, and, although these analytical methods have tried to overcome all these difficulties, there is still not a method enabling quantitative assessment of soyabean proteins in all kinds of meat products.

Perfusion chromatography: an emergent technique for the analysis of food proteins

Perfusion chromatography is a technique arised to overcome the problem associated with mass transfer in the separation of large molecules such as proteins by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Perfusion media are constituted by two set of pores: throughpores (6000-8000 A) and diffusive pores (800-1500 A) which enable better access of macromolecules to the inner of the particle by the combination of convective and diffusive flow. As a consequence, times required for a chromatographic separation are reduced. Perfusion media are available in different chromatographic modes: reversed-phase, ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and affinity. From the theoretical models developed to explain the dynamic of retention of solutes in perfusive supports, it was derived that efficiency of a separation was independent of the flow-rate and only depended slightly on the particle diameter. Furthermore, loading capacity was also independent of the superficial velocity. All these advantages have promoted the use of this chromatographic technique for the separation of biomolecules both in analytical and preparative chromatography. Characteristics of perfusion chromatography make this technique very interesting for the analysis of food proteins. Perfusion chromatography enables the assessment of protein composition of a foodstuff at sufficient speed and low cost to be suitable in routine analysis.

The State of the Art of Ligand-Loaded Complexing Resins. Characteristics and Applications

Abstract This review deals with the most recent investigations on the preparation, characterization, and metal sorption properties of ligand-loaded resins obtained by modification of conventional anion-exchange resins and nonionic sorbents with complexing organic reagents. These resins display a selectivity for metal ions that can be applied for the separation and/or preconcentration of metal ions off-line as well as in on-line techniques. In addition, the increasing application in recent years of new functional-modified resins in certain growing scientific areas, namely, electrochemistry, optical-fiber sensors, pharmaceuticals, biochemistry, etc., is discussed. Finally, the immobilization of chelating reagents in types of supports other than conventional resins is also considered.

Recent advances on the use of cyclodextrins in the chiral analysis of drugs by capillary electrophoresis

The most recent advances on the use of cyclodextrins as chiral selectors in capillary electrophoresis for the enantioseparation of drugs are reviewed in this article. The types of cyclodextrins employed and the resolutions achieved are discussed. The use of dual chiral systems, modified capillaries, non-aqueous media or microfluidic devices is also included and the mechanisms for enantioseparation of drugs and the inversion of the enantiomer migration order are studied. The most relevant applications developed to carry out the quantitation of chiral drugs, to assess the enantiomeric purity of pharmaceutical formulations, to study their metabolism or to achieve criminalistic or forensic investigations are described. Articles published in the last six years (period from 2010 to 2015) are considered.

Chiral separation of agricultural fungicides

Fungicides are very important and diverse environmental and agricultural concern species. Their determination in commercial formulations or environmental matrices, requires highly efficient, selective and sensitive methods. A significant number of these chemicals are chiral with the activity residing usually in one of the enantiomers. The different toxicological and degradation behavior observed in many cases for fungicide enantiomers, results in the need to investigate them separately. For this purpose, separation techniques such as GC, HPLC, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and CE have widely been employed although, at present, HPLC still dominates chromatographic chiral analysis of fungicides. This review covers the literature concerning the enantiomeric separation of fungicides usually employed in agriculture grouping the chiral separation methodologies developed for their analysis in environmental, biological, and food samples.

Spectrophotometric and conductimetric determination of the critical micellar concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide micellar systems modified by alcohols and salts

Determination of the critical micellar concentration of some modified micellar systems used as mobile phases in micellar liquid chromatography and micellar electrokinetic chromatography has been achieved. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were used as surfactants, n-propanol and n-butanol as modifiers, and phosphate buffer was included in some of the micellar systems.

Characteristics and enantiomeric analysis of chiral pyrethroids

Pyrethroids are synthetic pesticides that originated from the modification of natural pyrethrins to improve their biological activity and stability. They are a family of chiral pesticides with a large number of stereoisomers. Enantiomers of synthetic pyretroids present different insecticidal activity, toxicity against aquatic invertebrates and persistence in the environment so the development of rapid and sensitive chiral methods for the determination of different enantiomers is necessary. Several techniques have been employed for this purpose including gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography or more recently capillary electrophoresis and sub or supercritical fluid chromatography. A general view on the different chiral separation methods applied to the analysis of pyrethroids and the most important information about these pesticides is provided in this review.