Abstract: Functional properties of bovine serum albumin-dextran conjugate produced by dry-heating and water-heating methods were studied. The results indicated that dry-heating method could result in an obvious increase of emulsibility, a significant decrease of foaming capacity and a slight decrease of hydrophobicity. Compared with dry-heating method, water-heating method could significantly improve the foaming capacity and hydrophilicity and largely lower the emulsifying capacity. In addition, bovine serum albumin-dextran conjugates produced by both methods showed higher thermosatablity in comparison with bovine serum albumin, but no obvious increase in DPPH radical scavenging activity was observed.

Key words: bovine serum albumin, dextran, conjugation, functional properties