Abstract:

Significant changes of cooking properties and taste value are always observed in lotus seeds stored due to deterioration of internal attributes. In order to understand the causes of the changes, fresh and stale lotus seeds from Guangchang were comparatively investigated for water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, emulsifying ability and emulsion stability, foaming ability and foam stability, and gel property. Results indicated that no significant differences in contents of moisture, protein, crude fat and HPLC fingerprint of 80% methanol extract were found in fresh and stable lotus seeds. However, fresh and stale lotus seeds exhibited significantly different functional properties. Compared with fresh lotus seeds, the water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, emulsifying ability, foaming capacity and gel property of stale lotus seeds were decreased remarkably. These results revealed that staling might lead to structural changes of chemical compositions, which affect the functional properties of lotus seeds.

Key words: lotus seed, stale, functional properties