Isolation, characterization and digestible properties of flaxseed protein

Abstract

The challenges of environmental sustainability, food security, and global population growth highlight the urgent need for sustainable protein production, positioning agro-industrial by-products as attractive alternative protein resources. In recent years, the growing demand for flaxseed oil has led to increased availability of flaxseed meal, which has emerged as a significant by-product for value-added utilization. In this regard, a sequential extraction method is demonstrated to enrich the protein content of flaxseed from ~38% to 92%. The isolated flaxseed protein (FSF-P) exhibits a denaturation temperature (Td) of 96.74 °C and shows high water solubility in the pH range of 7-11. Additionally, the amino acid profile of FSF-P reveals a high abundance of arginine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid, along with a low lysine-to-arginine ratio of 0.49, a characteristic considered desirable for heart-healthy foods and infant formula applications. Furthermore, the PDCAAS evaluation indicates the overall protein quality of FSF-P, identifying lysine and threonine as the limiting amino acids, with scores of 0.46 and 0.44, respectively. Notably, this study provides valuable insights into the development of sustainable plant-based materials.