Proteins, sugars and fatty acids Flashcards
What can a ruminant diet contain?
Ruminant diet can contain natural plant polyesters (cutin), thus hydrolytic enzymes may be present
Why are plastic digesting enzymes important?
Huge unexplored potential
Authors analysed ocean and soil metagenomes to assess the global potential of micro-organisms to degrade plastics
Across the global microbiome what are the plastic degrading enzyme hits?
11,906 enzyme hits (ocean) and 18,119 (soil)
Potential to degrade up to 10 and 9 different plastic types was observed
What is an application of proteins in the food industry?
Anti-freeze proteins (AFP)
Freezing point (FP) of marine fish body fluids: -0.7 degrees
AFPs change FP ca. -2.2 to -2.7 degrees, below ambient temp. -1.91 degrees
What are the known modes of action of the AFP?
- Antifreeze- forces curvature, prevents larger formations
- Ice re crystallization inhibition- inhibits water movement
- Ice structuring- keeps channels open
- Ice adhesion
What are the application of AFP?
Cryopreservation
Cryosurgery
Food preservation/texture
Transgenics
What is an example of a fish protein?
Collagen/gelatin
Used extensively in food, cosmetic and biomedical industries
How are collagen and gelatin structured?
Collagen- triple helix of 3 protein chains
Gelatin- Partially hydrolysed form of collagen
Fish collagen rich in amino acids glycine, alanine, valine and proline- widely sold as nutraceutical
Gelatin: gelling agent in food, medications, drug/vitamin capsules, photographic films and cosmetics
What do carbohydrates contain?
Contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
What are monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides?
Monosaccharides: simple sugars, 3 to 7 carbon atoms e.g glucose, fructose
Disaccharides: two monosaccharides linked via glycosidic linkage e.g. maltose
Polysaccharides: repeating units of simple sugars e.g. starch, glycogen
What is important in the production of polysaccharides?
Marine macroalgae
Gelling properties, used as nutraceuticals
Can also provide pigments for use as cellular labels
What are the major polysaccharide groups?
Agars: red algae
Aliginites: brown algae
Fucans: fucose containing, sulphated polysaccharide
Laminarins
Carrageenans: repeating galactose polymers
What is agar used for?
Agar: widely used as gelling agent in food, microbiology, dentistry, molecular biology
Mixture of agarose and agaropecten
Agarose- repeating structure of galactose/anhydro alpha galactose
Agaropecten- contains sulphate groups which influence gelling properties
Retains liquid
Resistant to microbial hydrolysis
What are Alginates?
Copolymer of mannuronic/guluronic acid, usually arranged in blocks
Soluble in water, forms gels at RT in presence of bivalent ions
Widely used in frozen foods, dressings, dentistry
What are fucans/fucoidins?
Fucans: can be classified into
a. fucoidans
b. xylofucoglycuronans
c. glycorunogalactofucans
Sulphated polysaccharides
What are laminarins
Laminarins: polysaccharide of glucose
Storage carbohydrate in brown algae
What are the carrageenans?
A group of polysaccharides, which are repeating sequences if sulphated galactose and anhydro-beta-D-galactose
How are the carrageenans divided?
Into 6 groups
Based on degree of sulphation, extraction methods and solubilities: kappa, iota, lambda, mu, nu, beta, and theta
Why are the carrageenans valuable?
Valuable in the food industry because of their moisture binding and stabilizing properties
Widely used used to control consistency/texture of food, toothpaste, gel products and commonly used in milk products in particular
Obtained from several red algae
Potent inflammatory properties
What polysaccharides are from crustaceans?
Chitin
Chitosan
What are chitin and chitosan?
By products from bioprocessing plants
Accumulation of chitin increasing, slow degradation
Chitosan: derived from chitin by removal of alkyl groups
What is the bioactivity of chitosan?
Chitosan/oligers reduce LDL-cholesterol
Anti cancer activity against lung cancer cells by stimulation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes
Wound healing- linked to release of cytokines
Chitin- anti-microbial and anti-oxidant properties
What are lipids?
Highly polymorphic, contain principally carbon and hydrogen
Largely insoluble in water, inclusion of functional groups containing oxygen alters hydrophobicity
What are omega 3-fatty acids?
Long chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids
Fatty acid: carboxylic attached to H-C chains
>1 double bond = unsaturated
Common sources- fish, shellfish
Importance:
- Membrane structure
- Signal transduction
What is the nutraceutical market?
Term coined in 1989
Refers to raw foods, fortified foods or dietary supplements containing biologically active molecules, that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition
Global market estimated at $250 billion in 2014
Fatty acids a major part of the market, but examples also include polysaccharides, proteins/peptides, phytochemicals, vitamins
