As curiosity grows in more healthy alternate options to conventional wheat-based meals, scientists are exploring new elements that may enhance diet with out sacrificing practicality. One promising possibility is partially defatted sunflower seed flour (SF), a fabric left behind after sunflower oil is produced. This underused by-product has proven robust potential for enriching bread with protein, fiber, and antioxidant compounds.
“Our goal was to optimize the reuse of sunflower seed flour contemplating its excessive protein and chlorogenic acid content material,” says biologist Leonardo Mendes de Souza Mesquita, who’s at the moment based mostly on the Institute of Biosciences of the College of São Paulo (IB-USP) in Brazil. He’s the lead writer of a examine printed in ACS Meals Science & Expertise.
Testing Sunflower Flour in Bread Recipes
To judge how sunflower seed flour performs in baking, the analysis staff ready bread recipes that changed wheat flour (WF) with sunflower seed flour (SF) at ranges starting from 10% to 60%. Every model was rigorously analyzed for its chemical make-up, dough habits, and the bodily traits of the completed bread.
“Sunflower seed flour has been proven to include a really excessive share of protein, from 40% to 66%, in addition to dietary fiber, iron, calcium, and excessive ranges of chlorogenic acid, a phenolic compound related to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hypoglycemic results,” Mesquita explains. He provides that utilizing this by-product will increase the dietary worth of bread whereas decreasing the environmental footprint of sunflower oil manufacturing. As a result of it’s offered cheaply to keep away from disposal, sunflower seed flour can be a low-cost ingredient.
Main Features in Protein and Antioxidants
The outcomes confirmed clear dietary enhancements. Breads made with sunflower seed flour contained considerably extra protein and fiber than commonplace wheat bread. On the highest substitution stage, the bread reached 27.16% protein, in contrast with 8.27% in standard bread. Antioxidant ranges rose alongside protein content material.
Antioxidant exercise was measured utilizing Trolox, a water-soluble analog of vitamin E that serves as a reference commonplace. The values recorded in sunflower flour breads had been a lot greater than these seen in bread made fully from wheat flour.
“The outcome reinforces the potential of sunflower seed flour to advertise well being advantages related to lowering oxidative stress,” says Mesquita. He additionally notes robust inhibition of digestive enzymes, together with α-amylase (92.81%) and pancreatic lipase (25.6%), suggesting that bread containing SF or SFE could assist gradual the digestion of starches and fat.
Clear Processing and Meals Security
One other key discovering entails how sunflower oil is produced. Based on the researchers, industrial extraction depends on mechanical urgent reasonably than chemical solvents. Consequently, the leftover flour is free from processing contaminants, other than residues already current from agricultural sunflower cultivation.
Whereas the dietary advantages had been clear, greater quantities of sunflower seed flour affected how the bread regarded and felt. When SF made up 20% or extra of the recipe, loaves grew to become smaller and firmer. Modifications in crumb construction additionally led to denser bread with diminished softness.
“Nevertheless, including the aqueous extract [SFE] managed to protect the construction and texture of the breads, maintaining them near these of conventional wheat bread,” Mesquita says. He explains that this method permits bakers to realize the dietary benefits of sunflower flour whereas minimizing destructive results on texture.
Utilizing Sunflower Extract to Enhance Bread High quality
The aqueous extract is produced by mixing sunflower seed flour with water and filtering it, with out requiring further bodily or chemical therapies. Mesquita means that future work might discover whether or not SFE would possibly absolutely substitute SF or be blended with it in several ratios. Industrial bakeries might then decide which formulations work finest at scale.
Sustainable Innovation and the Round Financial system
This analysis is a component of a bigger effort to seek out productive makes use of for industrial leftovers. “Reworking waste into merchandise is a elementary technique for selling a round economic system and lowering useful resource waste,” says Mesquita. He notes that partially defatted sunflower seed flour helps human well being whereas additionally delivering environmental and financial advantages, addressing all three pillars of the round economic system.
The round economic system seeks to maneuver away from the normal “extract, produce, discard” method. As a substitute, it goals to maintain supplies in circulation longer, maximize their worth, and regenerate sources on the finish of every cycle. On this case, an ignored by-product has been become a useful ingredient that enhances bread diet whereas lowering waste.
Analysis Collaboration and Funding
The examine concerned scientists from the Multidisciplinary Laboratory of Meals and Well being (LabMAS) on the College of Utilized Sciences of the State College of Campinas (FCA-UNICAMP) in Limeira and the Laboratory of Meals Expertise and Diet on the Federal College of São Paulo (UNIFESP) on its Baixada Santista campus. Funding was supplied by FAPESP by way of six initiatives (13/04304-4, 20/15774-5, 18/14582-5, 20/08421-9, 15/00658-1, and 19/13496-0). Mesquita later obtained a Younger Researcher Grant for the mission “Sustainable Improvements: The Biorefinery Revolution by way of the Valorization of Macroalgae Utilizing Renewable Solvents Towards a (Inexperienced/Blue) Financial system.”