Some Physical Properties of Protein Moiety of Alkali-Extracted Tea Polysaccharide Conjugates Were Shielded by Its Polysaccharide

• Main Authors: Xiaoqiang Chen, Wei Song, Jin Zhao, Zhifa Zhang, Yuntian Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-05-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: alkali-extracted; tea polysaccharide conjugates; protein
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/22/6/914

Polysaccharide conjugates were alkali-extracted from green tea (TPC-A). Although it contained 11.80% covalently binding proteins, TPC-A could not bind to the Coomassie Brilliant Blue dyes G250 and R250. TPC-A had no expected characteristic absorption peak of protein in the UV-vis spectrum scanning in the range of 200–700 nm. The UV-vis wavelength of 280 nm was not suitable to detect the presence of the protein portion of TPC-A. The zeta potential of TPC-A merely presented the negative charge properties of polysaccharides instead of the acid–base property of its protein section across the entire pH range. Furthermore, TPC-A was more stable when the pH of solution exceeded 4.0. In addition, no precipitation or haze was generated in the TPC-A/(−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) mixtures during 12 h storage. TPC-A has emulsifying activity, which indicated that its protein moiety formed hydrophobic groups. Thus, it was proposed that some physical properties of TPC-A protein were shielded by its olysaccharide, since the protein moiety was wrapped by its polysaccharide chains.