Structural and physicochemical properties of soya bean protein isolate/maltodextrin mixture and glycosylation conjugates

Abstract The effect of mixture and conjugation with maltodextrin (MD) in aqueous solution on the structural and physicochemical properties of soya bean protein isolate (SPI) was investigated. Although the mixing of MD would not change the distribution of secondary structure and tertiary conformation of SPI, the protein aggregation was promoted through hydrophobic interaction, which resulted in the decrease in solubility and the improvement of gel strength and water holding capacity (WHC) of SPI/MD mixture. However, glycosylation decreased α‐helix and increased β‐structure. The bathochromic shift of the fluorescence emission maximum wavelength for SPI/MD conjugates was promoted, resulting in less compact tertiary conformation. These structural modifications might be the reason for the changes in the physicochemical properties of conjugates. After glycosylation, the surface hydrophobicity and solubility were increased, the average particle size was decreased, and the gelation properties were weakened including gel strength and WHC.