Characterization of Proteins in Defatted Flour and Protein Isolate of Baobab (Adansonia Digitatal) Seeds

This study sought to analyze the proteins of baobab seeds present in the defatted flour and protein isolate in terms of their functional properties, the profile of their fractions, and the in vitro digestibility and electrophoretic pattern. Baobab seeds were milled into flours and sieved, defatted with hexane and extracted at the pH of higher protein solubility to obtain the protein isolate. The defatted flour was high in protein (37.79±1.17), protein concentrate and isolate were 52.58±2.46, 88.14±079 respectively but moderate in available carbohydrates. The mineral (ash) decreased insignificantly; fiber and fat contents decreased significantly. Globulin (56.11±0.95%) followed by the albumins (28.12±0.24%), are the major fractions of the flour and protein isolate respectively. In vitro protein digestibility was greater for the protein  isolate (88.91±0.20) than for the defatted flour (78.9±0.43).The electrophoretic profile of the protein fractions in full fat, defatted and isolate was evaluated in SDS-PAGE with major bands corresponding to molecular weights in the range of 42 – 34,  42 -14,  26 - 14, 34 - 42 kDa respectively. The functional properties of the proteins indicate the possibility of their use in various foods providing water absorption capacity of 2.86±0.06gg-1, oil absorption capacity of 1.97±0.05gg-1, bulk density 0.43±0.01(g/ml), protein solubility of isolate is 97.34%, minimum foaming capacity of 55.00% and emulsion activity of 20% at iso-electric point.  The results, suggest that baobab seeds protein has potential for use in food applications due to nutritional and  good technologically functional properties.