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AssigneeStichting Wageningen Research
InventorsGovardus Adrianus Hubertus de Jong, Peter Geerdink, Paulus Josephus Theodorus Bussmann, Nienke Hylkema
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The invention relates to a method for obtaining a protein from a plant material, wherein the method comprises the steps of i) mechanically disrupting the plant cells to obtain a plant juice in the presence of a reducing agent, ii) treating the plant juice to cause aggregation of chloroplast membranes, iii) removing the aggregated chloroplast membranes by precipitation and/or microfiltration, iv) subjecting the plant juice to ultrafiltration, and v) subjecting the soluble plant protein concentrate to hydrophobic column adsorption to remove residual chlorophyll, phenolic compounds and off-odors in a single column passage. The present invention also pertains to an apparatus and system for plant protein isolation based on this method. The isolated proteins can be economically obtained in batch scale and in large scale. Further, the invention is directed to a protein obtained by the method of the invention, a food product comprising thereof, and a use thereof.
A method for isolating a soluble plant protein from a plant material on an industrial scale, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein said plant juice after addition of said extraction composition comprises a dry matter content of up to 10 wt % based on the total weight of the plant juice.
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein said treating step involves heating the plant juice to a temperature of between about 40° C. to 60° C., preferably wherein after the heating said the heated juice is cooled by forced cooling, and/or wherein said treating step involves the use of an extraction comprising a divalent ion in an amount that causes flocculation of chloroplast membranes and allowing the plant juice to flocculate.
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein said precipitation involves centrifugation of the heated and optionally cooled juice and/or the divalent ion-flocculated juice to provide a pellet of aggregated chloroplast membranes and a plant juice supernatant comprising the soluble plant protein, or wherein said microfiltration comprises filtering the heated and optionally cooled juice and/or the divalent ion-flocculated juice through a filter having a pore size in the range of 0.1-0.5 μm, preferably a pore size that retains membranes, chlorophyll, tannin, virus, bacteria and/or aggregates thereof from said juice while allowing passage of soluble proteins.
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein hydrophobic column adsorption comprises the use of a column packed with a hydrophobic adsorptive resin, preferably a non-ionic crosslinked polystyrene resin, even more preferably a macroreticular styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer matrix, still more preferably Amberlite™ XAD 16 resin.
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the steps i), iii), iv), and v), and preferably also vi), are performed under low temperature, preferably a temperature in the range of about 0-15° C., preferably the temperature in the range of about 1-10° C., and preferably the temperature in the range about 2-5° C.
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the processing time to complete process steps i)-v), and preferably also vi), is no more than 1 day, preferably wherein the processing time from harvest of the plant material to completion of process step v), and preferably also vi), is no more than 1 day.
A method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the protein is ribulose 1,5-diphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (Rubisco).
A protein isolate obtained by a method according to any one of the proceeding claims, preferably wherein said protein isolate comprises low amounts of tannin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.