Abstract
Global population growth poses a threat to sustainable development. Meanwhile, the use of plant proteins as healthy and sustainable alternatives to animal proteins needs further research. Therefore, this investigation was designed to study the nutritive, structural, and thermal properties of isolated protein fractions from different legumes, i.e., faba bean (FPI), soybean (SPI), and lupine (LPI). As a prospective plant-based protein powder, an equal mixture (MPI) of the three prior legume samples was formulated to study its properties compared to each sole sample. The alkaline extraction and isoelectric precipitation (AE-IP) technique was used for protein isolation. Results showed that all protein isolates had reasonable levels of protein with maximum protein content in SPI (96.15%). The MPI sample, however, came out on top in terms of amino acid profile followed by FBI. Compared to SPI and LPI, it had the highest isoleucine content and higher methionine, valine, leucine, phenylalanine, and lysine. Moreover, MPI showed a median particle charge (-37.1 mV) compared to FPI, SPI, and LPI samples. MPI sample peak showed resistance to heat denaturation at a temperature greater than 200 °C when the DSC test was conducted. With respect to its rheological characteristics, it outperformed the other three protein isolates and exhibited the highest values of storage modulus G' and loss modulus G". Consequently, our study suggests that pulse-derived protein isolate mixture can be used as a unique type of nutritious dietary protein supplement. It could be a good nutritional alternative to proteins derived from animals.