Characterization of cold plasma-induced covalent epigallocatechin gallate conjugates of β-lactoglobulin: a comparison with free-radical and alkaline treatments.

Zhi-Wei Liu, Jun Lv, Chang Liu, Jun-Hu Cheng, Najla AlMasoud, Rana Muhammad Aadil, Xiu-Bin Liu

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Article in Food chemistry: X, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

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2 citing papers in PubMed.

Modulation of structure, functionality, allergenicity andFood chemistry: X · 2026
Article
Research Progress on Protein-Polyphenol Interaction Mechanisms and Structure-Activity Relationship Modified by Physical Fields.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
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7 authors.

Zhi-Wei LiuCollege of Food Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.

Jun LvCollege of Food Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.

Chang LiuCollege of Food Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.

Jun-Hu ChengSchool of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.

Najla AlMasoudDepartment of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, PO Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.

Rana Muhammad AadilNational Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.

Xiu-Bin LiuCollege of Food Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.

Funding

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6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The characteristics of cold plasma (CP)-induced β-lactoglobulin-epigallocatechin gallate (β-LG-EGCG) covalent conjugates were investigated in comparison with the conventional free -radical (FR) and alkaline treatment (AT) methods. Results indicated CP achieved a high EGCG grafting degree (116.73 ± 0.82 μmol/g, equivalent to 38.91 ± 0.27 % of grafting) after 45 s treatment, comparable to AT (131.79 ± 1.75 μmol/g, equivalent to 43.93 ± 0.58 % of grafting) and far exceeding FR (18.29 ± 0.67 μmol/g, equivalent to 6.10 ± 0.22 % of grafting). In addition, CP conjugates exhibited 27.51 % less browning than AT counterparts. Different from AT and FR, CP uniquely expanded EGCG-binding sites to include hydroxyl- and cyclic alkyl-containing residues. Multiple structural analyses revealed covalent grafting with EGCG induced conformational unfolding of β-LG and exposed buried hydrophobic groups. The CP-induced β-LG-EGCG conjugates yielded improvements comparable to AT in emulsifying and antioxidant properties. Moreover, CP-induced conjugates exhibited superior digestibility and lower antigenicity during gastrointestinal digestion. These findings demonstrated CP is a robust means of promoting covalent grafting between proteins and polyphenols, with high efficiency and enhanced functionality.

Indexed as

Alkaline treatmentCold plasmaCovalent conjugatesEpigallocatechin gallateFree radicalFunctional foodβ-lactoglobulin

Identifiers

PMID41438549

DOI10.1016/j.fochx.2025.103330

PMCPMC12719203

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