Aqueous enzymatic sesame oil and protein extraction

In the present work we evaluated five enzyme-mixtures (Protex 7L, Alcalase 2.4L, Viscozyme L, Natuzyme, and Kemzyme) for their effectiveness in extracting the oil and protein recovery from sesame seeds during an enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction (EAAE) process. Alcalase 2.4L was found to be the best for attaining a high oil yield (57.4% of the total oil content in the seed), whereas, the maximum amount of protein (87.1% of the total seed protein), was recovered in the aqueous phase with Protex 7L. The quality attributes such as fatty acids profile, density, refractive index, free fatty acid contents, iodine value, colour, saponification number and unsaponifiable matter of the sesame oil, extracted by aqueous enzymatic process, were comparable with that of the control (oil extracted without enzyme treatment) and hexane-extracted oil (HEO), revealing no significant (p > 0.05) variations among oils, produced by either of the methods. The oxidative stability state of the enzyme-extracted oil (EEO) was noted to be considerably improved relative to the control and HEO. The amount of tocopherols for the oils, produced by the enzyme-adjuvant was found to be higher than the control and HEO. An appreciable increase in the antioxidant activity as assessed by determinations of total phenolic contents, DPPH radical scavenging capacity, and inhibition of linoleic acid oxidation of EEO was also established. Overall, the present results revealed improvement in the quality of the EEO while a major portion of the food grade protein was also extracted in the aqueous phase. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.