Extraction and Characterization of “Batuan” [Garcinia binucao (Blco.) Choisy] Seed Protein

Abstract

“Batuan” [Garcinia binucao (Blco.) Choisy], an indigenous, lesser known member of the Gutifferae family with export potential is underutilized and understudied. The present study was carried out to extract and characterize the protein in “batuan” [Garcinia binucao (Blco.) Choisy] seeds for nutritional quality assessment. Protein content of “batuan” seed meal was 8.9 ± 0.59% dry basis. Solubility fractionation of “batuan” seed meal showed globulin and glutelin as the major seed proteins. SDS-PAGE resolved the globulin and glutelin into three groups of polypeptides with molecular weights of about 20 – 54 kDa. Amino acid analysis revealed that seed protein contained all the essential amino acids with leucine as the most abundant while tryptophan, the least. “Batuan” seed proteins were mostly made up of acidic and hydrophobic amino acids with glutamic acid (2.67%) as the highest. Nutritional assessments including E/T (38.4%), amino acid score (1.6%), predicted PER (3.2-3.7) and estimated BV (98.3%) suggested that the seed proteins are of good quality. Hence, “batuan” seeds has a promising potential as an important source of valuable proteins and amino acids for use as food supplement/enhancing ingredient.