Pomegranate seed oil stabilized with ovalbumin glycated by inulin: Physicochemical stability and oxidative stability

Pomegranate seed oil is rich of conjugated fatty acids which are highly appealing for a variety of applications in food industry. In this research, ovalbumin (OVA) and ovalbumin-inulin glycoconjugates with different Maillard reaction times were used to stabilize pomegranate seed oil emulsions and their impact on physicochemical stability and oxidative stability of the products was investigated. The OVA-inulin glycoconjugate produced on 10th day of Maillard reaction has exhibited significantly higher conjugation efficiency, lower surface hydrophobicity and lower surface tension than other glycoconjugates. The secondary conformation of OVA and conjugates determined by far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy has remarkably changed. The reduction in intensity of Trp-fluorescence observed in glycated proteins with inulin indicated that the glycation affected partially the side chains of protein in tertiary structure through the Maillard reaction without great disruption of native structure. The emulsion stabilized by OVA-inulin glycoconjugate obtained by 10 days Maillard reaction has shown the best physicochemical stability. Compared with the OVA emulsion, the oxidative stability of the glycated OVA emulsion system was significantly improved (p < 0.05). Fatty acid profile results also confirmed that OVA-inulin glycoconjugates were able to prevent the pomegranate seed oil from oxidation. It is suggested that the inulin attached to OVA by glycation played a vital role in physicochemical stability and oxidative stability of pomegranate seed oil emulsions.