Abstract:

In this work, we evaluated the effects of protein concentration, pH, CaCl2 concentration and temperature on the emulsifying activity (EA), emulsifying stability (ES), foaming activity (FA) and foam stability (FS) of bovine serum albumin (BSA). The highest values of EA and ES were both obtained at protein concentration of 0.1 g/100 mL, and the lowest values were obtained at pH 5. EA increased slowly as CaCl2 concentration increased, whereas ES presented an opposite change. The highest EA was found at 60 ℃ and ES decreased notably when temperature was over 60 ℃. FA increased, and FS ascended first and then descended with increasing protein concentration. FS reached a maximum at 1.5 g/100 mL protein concentration. At pH 5, FA reached a minimum and FS a maximum. CaCl2 concentration had no obvious influence on both FA and FS.

Key words: bovine serum albumin, emulsifying properties, foaming properties