Effects of low-temperature microwave treatment of wheat germ

A review of thermosensitive antinutritional factors in plant-based foods

Legumes and cereals account for the vast proportion of people's daily intake of plant-based foods. Meanwhile, a large number of antinutritional factors in legumes and cereals hinder the body absorption of nutrients and reduce the nutritional value of food. In this paper, the antinutritional effects, determination, and passivation methods of thermosensitive antinutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectin were reviewed to provide theoretical help to reduce antinutritional factors in food and improve the utilization rate of plant-based food nutrition. Since trypsin inhibitors and lectin have been more extensively studied and reviewed previously, the review mainly focused on urease and lipoxygenase. This review summarized the information of thermosensitive antinutritional factors, trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectin, in cereals and legumes. The antinutritional effects, and physical and chemical properties of trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectin were introduced. At the same time, the research methods for the detection and inactivation of these four antinutritional factors were also summarized in the order of research conducted time. The rapid determination and inactivation of antinutrients will be the focus of attention for the food industry in the future to improve the nutritional value of food. Exploring what structural changes could passivation technologies bring to antinutritional factors will provide a theoretical basis for further understanding the mechanisms of antinutritional factor inactivation. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Antinutritional factors in plant-based foods hinder the absorption of nutrients and reduce the nutritional value of the food. Among them, thermosensitive antinutritional factors, such as trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectins, have a high proportion among the antinutritional factors. In this paper, we investigate thermosensitive antinutritional factors from three perspectives: the antinutritional effect of thermosensitive antinutritional factors, determination, and passivation methods. The current passivation methods for thermosensitive antinutritional factors revolve around biological, physical, and chemical aspects, and their elimination mechanisms still need further research, especially at the protein structure level. Reducing the level of antinutritional factors in the future food industry while controlling the loss of other nutrients in food is a goal that needs to be balanced. This paper reviews the antinutritional effects of thermosensitive antinutritional factors and passivation methods, expecting to provide new research ideas to improve the nutrient utilization of food.

Current Strategies for Real-Time Enzyme Activation

Enzyme activation is a powerful means of achieving biotransformation function, aiming to intensify the reaction processes with a higher yield of product in a short time, and can be exploited for diverse applications. However, conventional activation strategies such as genetic engineering and chemical modification are generally irreversible for enzyme activity, and they also have many limitations, including complex processes and unpredictable results. Recently, near-infrared (NIR), alternating magnetic field (AMF), microwave and ultrasound irradiation, as real-time and precise activation strategies for enzyme analysis, can address many limitations due to their deep penetrability, sustainability, low invasiveness, and sustainability and have been applied in many fields, such as biomedical and industrial applications and chemical synthesis. These spatiotemporal and controllable activation strategies can transfer light, electromagnetic, or ultrasound energy to enzymes, leading to favorable conformational changes and improving the thermal stability, stereoselectivity, and kinetics of enzymes. Furthermore, the different mechanisms of activation strategies have determined the type of applicable enzymes and manipulated protocol designs that either immobilize enzymes on nanomaterials responsive to light or magnetic fields or directly influence enzymatic properties. To employ these effects to finely and efficiently activate enzyme activity, the physicochemical features of nanomaterials and parameters, including the frequency and intensity of activation methods, must be optimized. Therefore, this review offers a comprehensive overview related to emerging technologies for achieving real-time enzyme activation and summarizes their characteristics and advanced applications.