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- Biological protein precipitation: a green process for the extraction of cucumisin from melon (Cucumis melo L. inodorus) by-productsPublication . Gómez-García, Ricardo; Campos, Débora A.; Aguilar, Cristóbal N.; Madureira, Ana R.; Pintado, ManuelaCucumisin (CUC) from industrial melon by-products was separated for the first time through biological precipitation using carrageenan (CRG). This approach could represent a cost-effective and environmentally friendly process for the industries, avoiding the use of expensive equipment and toxic salts or solvents, such as butanol and ethanol. In this study, biological precipitation of proteins from melon by-products using CRG was studied and compared with conventional precipitation with ammonium sulphate. Different methods were applied for the identification and characterization of isolated proteins, including SDS-PAGE gel, FPLC and proteolytic activity assays. The isolated CUC confirmed a molecular weight of 68 kDa and showed highly stable proteolytic (PA) and milk-clotting (MCA) activities in a wide range of CaCl2 (20 to 60 mM), pH (5 to 7) and temperatures (30 to 85 ºC). Melon peel extract demonstrated to possess significant PA (4.24 U/mg protein) and MCA (191.50 MCU/mg protein), but such values were increased by ammonium sulphate precipitation (1.60 and 2.06-folds, respectively), and specially a noticeable increment was observed by biological precipitation with 2.11 and 17.65-folds, respectively, demonstrating the capability to be an effective strategy to isolate and purify CUC, allowing a yield of 0.17 g CUC/100 g of by-products and keeping its biological properties.
- Hydrothermal–microwave processing for starch extraction from mexican avocado seeds: operational conditions and characterizationPublication . Araújo, Rafael G.; Rodríguez-Jasso, Rosa M.; Ruiz, Héctor A.; Govea-Salas, Mayela; Rosas-Flores, Walfred; Aguilar-González, Miguel Angel; Aguilar, Cristobal Noe; Pintado, Manuela E.Avocado seeds are an agroindustrial residue widely produced in Mexico that are causing various environmental problems due to their accumulation. The evaluation of avocado residues to recover biopolymers by microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and the characterization of avocado starch properties were studied in the present work. A central-composite design was used to optimize the MAE process. Moreover, a comparison was performed between MAE non-isothermal mode (NO–ISO) and conventional extraction. Starch optimization by MAE was obtained at 161.09 °C for 56.23 min with an extraction yield of 49.52% ± 0.69%, while with NO–ISO at 161 °C was obtained 45.75% ± 2.18%. Conventional extraction was 39.04% ± 2.22%. Compared with conventional starch, MAE starch showed similar proprieties and molecular spectra. In contrast, MAE starch showed high solubility, low water absorption capacity, a non-granular structure with small particle size (<2 μm) and polydispersity of fragments at different sizes of polymers. Therefore, MAE is a viable technology to extract the starch, and avocado seed can be considered an excellent starch source for the development of novel functional foods, contributing to promoting sustainability across the food chain.