Potential Health Benefits Associated with Lunasin Concentration in Dietary Supplements and Lunasin-Enriched Soy Extract.

Lunasin has demonstrated antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and chemopreventive properties. The objectives were to evaluate the concentration of lunasin in different lunasin-based commercial dietary supplements, to produce a lunasin-enriched soy extract (LESE) using a two-step pilot-plant-based ultrafiltration process, and to evaluate their biological potential in vitro. LESE was produced using 30 and 1 kDa membranes in a custom-made ultrafiltration skid.

Effect of co-products of enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction of soybeans on ethanol production in dry-grind corn fermentation.

Enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) is an environmentally-friendly alternative to solvent and mechanical oil extraction methods, and can achieve ∼ 97% oil recovery from soybeans. The present study utilized soy skim (protein rich) and insoluble fiber (IF; carbohydrate rich), both co-products of EAEP, in dry-grind corn fermentation. The effects of adding soy skim and untreated IF (UIF), either separately or together, and adding pretreated IF (TIF), on ethanol production were investigated.

The effectiveness of flow cytometric sorting of human sperm (MicroSort®) for influencing a child's sex.

Background: Flow cytometric sorting can be used to separate sperm based on sex chromosome content. Differential fluorescence emitted by stained X- vs. Y-chromosome-bearing sperm enables sorting and collection of samples enriched in either X- or Y-bearing sperm for use to influence the likelihood that the offspring will be a particular sex.

Effects of fermentation substrate conditions on corn-soy co-fermentation for fuel ethanol production.

Soy skim, a protein-rich liquid co-product from the aqueous extraction of soybeans, was co-fermented with corn to produce ethanol. Effects of soy skim addition level, type of skim, corn particle size, water-to-solids ratio, and urea on co-fermentation were determined. The addition of 20-100% skim increased the fermentation rate by 18-27% and shortened the fermentation time by 5-7h without affecting ethanol yield.

Lunasin and Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor concentrations of protein extracts from enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction of soybeans.

Lunasin and Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (BBI) are two soybean peptides to which health-promoting properties have been attributed. Concentrations of these peptides were determined in skim fractions produced by enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) of extruded full-fat soybean flakes (an alternative to extracting oil from soybeans with hexane) and compared with similar extracts from hexane-defatted soybean meal. Oil and protein were extracted by using countercurrent two-stage EAEP of soybeans at 1:6 solids-to-liquid ratio, 50 °C, pH 9.

Utilizing protein-lean coproducts from corn containing recombinant pharmaceutical proteins for ethanol production.

Protein-lean fractions of corn (maize) containing recombinant (r) pharmaceutical proteins were evaluated as a potential feedstock to produce fuel ethanol. The levels of residual r-proteins in the coproduct, distillers dry grains with solubles (DDGS), were determined. Transgenic corn lines containing recombinant green fluorescence protein (r-GFP) and a recombinant subunit vaccine of Escherichia coli enterotoxin (r-LTB), primarily expressed in endosperm, and another two corn lines containing recombinant human collagen (r-CIα1) and r-GFP, primarily expressed in germ, were used as model systems.

Effects of kernel breakage and fermentation on corn germ integrity and oil quality.

To investigate the ability of corn germ to withstand the fuel ethanol fermentation process without major damage to germ integrity and germ oil quality, five treatments were designed to explore degerming before fermentation (front-end) and after fermentation (tail-end), and the feasibility of breaking the kernel with minimum shear forces (wet-split). Germ from low-shear (wet-split) tail-end degerming maintained its integrity during the process. The wet-grind pretreatment caused 22% germ damage, and the subsequent fermentation caused 18% additional germ damage.

Recovering corn germ enriched in recombinant protein by wet-fractionation.

Corn wet-fractionation processes (quick-germ fractionation and traditional wet milling) were evaluated as means of recovering fractions rich in recombinant collagen-related proteins that were targeted for expression in the germ (embryo) of transgenic corn. Transgenic corn lines accumulating a recombinant full-length human collagen type-I-alpha-1 (full-length rCIalpha1) or a 44-kDa rCIalpha1 fragment targeted for seed expression with an embryo-specific promoter were used. Factors to consider in efficient recovery processes are the distribution of the peptides among botanical parts and process recovery efficiency.

Fractionation of transgenic corn seed by dry and wet milling to recover recombinant collagen-related proteins.

Corn continues to be considered an attractive transgenic host for producing recombinant therapeutic and industrial proteins because of its potential for producing recombinant proteins at large volume and low cost as coproducts of corn seed-based biorefining. Efforts to reduce production costs have been primarily devoted to increasing accumulation level, optimizing protein extraction conditions, and simplifying the purification. In the present work, we evaluated two grain fractionation methods, dry milling and wet milling, to enrich two recombinant collagen-related proteins; thereby, reducing the amount and type of corn-derived impurities in subsequent protein extraction and purification steps.

Effect of low-shear extrusion on corn fermentation and oil partition.

To study oil distribution in fermentation liquid and solids for the purpose of recovering oil from corn stillage by centrifugation, a low-shear single-screw extruder was used to treat corn for dry-grind ethanol fermentation. Five different treatments for corn were used, and their effects on ethanol fermentation, oil distribution, and oil extractability were studied. Extruded corn with different particles sizes had similar ethanol yields (33% based on corn) because the starch was equally gelatinized by extrusion.

Corroborative study on maize quality, dry-milling and wet-milling properties of selected maize hybrids.

A corroborative study was conducted on the maize quality properties of test weight, pycnometer density, tangential abrasive dehulling device (TADD), time-to-grind on the Stenvert hardness tester (SHT), 100-kernel weight, kernel size distribution, and proximate composition as well as maize dry- and wet-millability by six participating laboratories. Suggested operating procedures were given to compare their measurements and provide the variance structure within and between laboratories and hybrids. Partial correlation coefficient among maize quality properties varied among laboratories.

Preselection of sex of offspring in swine for production: current status of the process and its application.

It is estimated that as many as 30,000 offspring, mostly cattle, have been produced in the past 5 years using AI or some other means of transport with spermatozoa sexed by flow cytometric sperm sorting and DNA as the marker of differentiation. It is well documented that the only marker in sperm that can be effectively used for the separation of X- and Y-chromosome bearing spermatozoa is DNA. The method, as it is currently used worldwide, is commonly known as the Beltsville Sperm Sexing Technology.

Perspectives for artificial insemination and genomics to improve global swine populations.

Civilizations throughout the world continue to depend on pig meat as an important food source. Approximately 40% of the red meat consumed annually worldwide (94 million metric tons) is pig meat. Pig numbers (940 million) and consumption have increased consistent with the increasing world population (FAO 2002).

Improved fractionation of glycinin and beta-conglycinin and partitioning of phytochemicals.

Glycinin-rich and beta-conglycinin-rich products are prepared by soy protein fractionation. Physicochemical characteristics of these proteins affect their unique, important functionality in food systems and industrial applications. Soybean isoflavones and saponins are phytochemicals with potential health benefits.