Effect of High-power Sonication Pretreatment on Extraction and Some Physicochemical Properties of Proteins from Chickpea, Kidney Bean, and Soybean

Impact of high-power sonication (HPS) as pretreatment in extraction and some physicochemical properties of proteins from soybean flakes, flour of soybean, chickpea, and kidney bean was evaluated. Soybean flakes and flours from soybean, chickpea, and kidney bean were dispersed in distilled water (1.10 w/v) and sonicated at two power densities (PD) of 2.5 and 4.5 W/cm for 5 min continuously. Proteins were extracted at pH range 8-8.5. PD 2.5 and 4.5 W/cm significantly increased protein extraction yields from soy flakes to 29.03% and 25.87%, respectively, compared to 15.28% for unsonicated controls, but did not increase for flours. Freeze-dried spent substrates at higher PD sonication aggregated in size. Free sulfhydryl content for both sonicated and unsonicated soy flakes and flour were similar but increased in chickpea and kidney bean when HPS of 4.5 W/cm was applied, indicating the unfolding of protein structure. The protein band patterns for sonicated and unsonicated legumes proteins were found to be similar, indicating no peptide profile alterations by HPS. However, circular dichroism analysis showed changes in secondary structure composition in extracted kidney bean protein causing unfolding and destabilizing the native structure. The secondary structure composition for soy flakes and flour protein and chickpea protein remained unchanged.