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Wheat bran albumins as organic matrices for artificial bio-mineralization processes
J. LUNA-VALDEZ (1), R. Balandran-Quintana (1), J. Azamar-Barrios (2), J. Mercado-Ruiz (1), G. Ramos-Clamont Montfort (1), A. Mendoza-Wilson (1), G. Chaquilla-Quilca (1) (1) Centro de Investigacion en Alimentacion y Desarrollo, A.C., Hermosillo Son., Mexico; (2) Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del IPN-Unidad Mérida, Mérida Yuc., Mexico.

Proteins from cereal by-products are underutilized so that innovating regarding its use is an area of opportunity. The fraction of wheat bran albumins (WBA) is rich in the amino acids Asp and Glu, which makes them candidates as matrices for artificial bio-mineralization. In this work the abilities of WBA for retaining mineral salts and forming crystals were studied. WBA was reconstituted with water in a 1:10 ratio (w/v) and pH was adjusted to 8 or 10 in order to prepare 2 stock solutions (SS). The SS were subjected to thermal conditioning (TC) at 68.5 °C for four time periods (1, 2, 3 and 4 h), after which two types of salt (NaCl and CaCl2), each at four concentrations (0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 M) were added. The salt gain index (SGI) was determined in the precipitates obtained in each treatment. Through a completely randomized design, factorial arrangement, ANOVA and analysis of means (<i>p = 0.05</i>) were performed to determine the effect of pH, type of salt, time of TC (TTC) and salt concentration (SC) on the IGS. The most significant interactions on the IGS were pH-type of salt and pH-SC, followed by pH-TTC and type of salt-SC. The conditions to which the largest SGI was obtained are pH 8, 3h TTC and addition of 0.5 M CaCl2. These latter conditions were reproduced to determine if there was formation of crystals in the process of salt gain. For this purpose the precipitates were lyophilized and analyzed by X-ray dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Crystalline formations of nanometric thickness were observed, with an elemental composition in which predominated calcium and phosphorus. XRD analysis confirmed the presence of different polymorphs. It is concluded that the protein extracts of wheat bran can act as templates for biomineralization.