Viscoelastic properties, antioxidant activities and structure of wheat gluten modified by rice bran

Abstract This study presents as a novel rice bran (RB) treatment method for gluten modification. The effects of the method on viscoelastic, and antioxidant properties, as well as the structure of wheat gluten were investigated. RB treatment improved the viscoelastic properties and antioxidant activities (Oxygen radical absorbance capacity and DPPH radical scavenging activity) of modified gluten. Additionally, the modified gluten showed a higher polyphenols content (especially bound polyphenols) and higher percentage of branched chain amino acids compared to control gluten. RB treatment achieved these effect by triggering aggregation of gluten and reaction between amino (-NH2) groups of lysine of gluten proteins and RB polyphenols thereby strengthening its network structure and changing its fluorescence. Moreover, increase in β-turn conformation proved the improvement of gluten aggregation. This study demonstrates that RB treatment modifies the characterization of gluten, and this approach reduces the cost of producing modified gluten and promotes the utilization of RB.