Publications by authors named "Maria V Avanza"

Article Synopsis
  • - Antioxidants from food by-products are beneficial for health but are often degraded during digestion, leading to poor gastrointestinal behavior.
  • - The study explores Ca(II)-alginate beads enriched with cowpea extract and biopolymers as a sustainable way to retain these antioxidants, showing that they effectively protect bioactive compounds during digestion.
  • - Results indicate that these alginate-based beads enhance the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), improve gut microbiota modulation, and confirm their potential as prebiotic carriers for bioactive compounds.
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Cajanus cajan [pigeon pea (PP)] is an important legume crop for subsistence agriculture and its seeds are an alternative plant-based protein source. PP protein isolates (PPI) are able to form heat-induced gels that could be used for food applications. The aim of this work was to study the influence of pH (2.

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In this work, modifications due to the effect of thermal treatments (TT 70 and 90 °C) and partial hydrolysis by digestion with alcalase (LH) on the emulsifying properties of cowpea protein isolates (CPIs) extracted at pH 8 and 10 were analyzed. In addition, the influence of protein concentration [0.1 and 1% (w/v)] was evaluated.

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Bromelia serra leaves collected from Corrientes, Argentina, were assessed to analyze and characterize the proteolytic system and to evaluate its potential use as an industrial catalyst. The specific activity of the enzymatic extract (EE), which was prepared using acetone as a precipitating agent of the crude extract (CE), increased 2-3 folds with different substrates (hemoglobin, azocasein and casein). The proteins present in the EE have isoelectric points between 4.

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Pigeon pea protein isolates (PPI) are an option to obtain a high yield of good quality proteins and represent a great potential for the food industry. In this work, physicochemical and structural properties of albumin (ALB), globulin (GLB), and PPI obtained at different pHs (8, 9, 10, and 11) were studied to deepen the knowledge of these proteins for future application. GLB presented protein aggregates and polypeptides characteristics of 7S vicilin subunits while ALB presented polypeptides with low molecular masses.

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Currently and according to the growing worldwide interest in the revaluation of agricultural by-products, the use of legumes waste presents great potential to obtain bioactive compounds. In this context, an extract rich in phenolic compounds was obtained from (cowpea) pods by optimizing the high-intensity ultrasound conditions (10 min and 36% of amplitude) using response surface methodology. Then, the extract was encapsulated in Ca(II)-alginate beads with the addition of arabic or guar gums or cowpea isolated proteins.

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