| Plant seed flours are applied in several foods; still an extensive comparative study of seed flour functional properties has not been performed to date. Purpose of the current investigation was to assess functional properties of 16 full fat and defatted seed flours of various seed groups; tree nuts, legumes, oil seeds and cereals.;Tree nut and oil seed full fat flours have lower bulk densities than legume and cereal flours. Defatting caused a decrease over a wide range (e.g. 0.49% in millet to 67.20% in Brazil nut). Rice flour was the lightest (L* = 89.62) while pecan flour was the darkest (L* = 53.71). As some the plant pigments are oil soluble, loss in color, hue and chroma was observed after defatting. Full fat almond flour registered highest oil holding capacity (OHC) of 1.38 g/g however, after defatting macadamia flour registered maximum OHC of 3.11 g/g. Full fat (2.74 g/g) and defatted (3.17 g/g) soybean flour had the highest water holding capacities (WHCs). Water and oil holding capacity of defatted flours was typically greater than their full fat counterparts. Almost all of the defatted flours held greater amount of water and oil than their own weight. In general, defatting improved tested functional properties of all the flours likely due to the increased proportion of protein and carbohydrates when compared to their corresponding full fat counterparts.;Three blackgram vicilin genes (BGV, BGV-1 and BGV-2) were isolated from blackgram cDNA library using rabbit anti-whole black gram seed proteins polyclonal antibodies and PCR screening methods. BGV, BGV-1 and BGV-2 have 445, 452 and 445 amino acids respectively with theoretical pI values 5.54, 5.94 and 5.59 respectively. Signal peptide cleavage site was predicted to be between 25th and 26th amino acid of the derived amino acid sequences of BGV, BGV-1 and BGV-2. The estimated molecular weights of mature BGV, BGV-1 and BGV-2 were 48.30, 48.77, and 48.29 kDa respectively. Isolated genes exhibited more than 90% sequence similarity with various vicilins including Vigna radiata , Vigna unguiculata, Glycin max, Vigna angularis, Vigna luteola, Lens culinaris. |
