New options for nutritional foods, medicine capsules, and anti-ageing products may be formed with an improved extraction method that involves chia — suggest the findings of new research.
A Purdue University team has developed and patented the method to separate mucilage from chia seeds, yielding a protein-rich chia seed flour with improved bioactivity and functionality compared with conventional methods.
This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Act formula funds project 1019794.
Mucilage is a thick and gluey substance that surrounds chia seeds and can make processing the seeds for food or pharmaceutical uses much more difficult or nearly impossible.
“We are excited about our extraction method because it opens up so many new possibilities for using chia seeds,” said Uriel Urbizo, a Ph.D. graduate student in Purdue’s College of Agriculture involved in the innovation team led by Andrea Liceaga, an associate professor of food science.
“Our process uses temperature, ultrasonication, and vacuum-assisted filtration to offer improved efficiency to save both time and money for companies processing chia seeds for nutritional, pharmaceutical, anti-ageing, or other applications,” added Urbizo. (ANI)
