Famiglietti Michela, Zannini Domenico, Turco Rosa, Mariniello Loredana
Department of Chemical Sciences, Monte Sant'Angelo Campus, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Cinthia 4, 80126 Naples, Italy.
National Research Council, Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 8;24(4):3405. doi: 10.3390/ijms24043405.
The bioeconomy aims to discover new sources for producing energy and materials and to valorize byproducts that otherwise would get wasted. In this work, we investigate the possibility of producing novel bioplastics, made up of argan seed proteins (APs), extracted from argan oilcake, and amylose (AM), obtained from barley plants through an RNA interference technique. Argan, , is a plant widespread in arid regions of Northern Africa, where it plays a fundamental socio-ecological role. Argan seeds are used to obtain a biologically active and edible oil, producing a byproduct, the oilcake, that is rich in proteins, fibers, and fats, and is generally used as animal food. Recently, argan oilcakes have been attracting attention as a waste to be recovered to obtain high-added-value products. Here, APs were chosen to test the performance of blended bioplastics with AM, because they have the potential to improve the properties of the final product. High-AM-starches present attractive features for use as bioplastics, including a higher gel-forming capacity, a higher thermal stability, and reduced swelling compared to normal starch. It has already been demonstrated that pure AM-based films provide more suitable properties than normal starch-based films. Here, we report on the performance of these novel blended bioplastics in terms of their mechanical, barrier, and thermal properties; and the effect of the enzyme microbial transglutaminase (mTGase) as a reticulating agent for AP's components was also studied. These results contribute to the development of novel sustainable bioplastics with improved properties and confirm the possibility of valorizing the byproduct, APs, using them as a new raw material.
生物经济旨在发现生产能源和材料的新来源，并使原本会被浪费的副产品增值。在这项工作中，我们研究了生产新型生物塑料的可能性，这种生物塑料由从摩洛哥坚果油饼中提取的摩洛哥坚果种子蛋白（APs）和通过RNA干扰技术从大麦植株中获得的直链淀粉（AM）组成。摩洛哥坚果树是一种广泛分布于北非干旱地区的植物，在当地发挥着重要的社会生态作用。摩洛哥坚果种子用于获取具有生物活性的可食用油，同时产生一种副产品——油饼，其富含蛋白质、纤维和脂肪，通常用作动物饲料。最近，摩洛哥坚果油饼作为一种有待回收以获取高附加值产品的废弃物而受到关注。在这里，选择APs来测试其与AM共混生物塑料的性能，因为它们有潜力改善最终产品的性能。与普通淀粉相比，高直链淀粉具有用作生物塑料的吸引人的特性，包括更高的凝胶形成能力、更高的热稳定性和更低的膨胀率。已经证明，纯直链淀粉基薄膜比普通淀粉基薄膜具有更合适的性能。在此，我们报告了这些新型共混生物塑料在机械性能、阻隔性能和热性能方面的表现；还研究了酶微生物转谷氨酰胺酶（mTGase）作为APs组分交联剂的效果。这些结果有助于开发具有改进性能的新型可持续生物塑料，并证实了将副产品APs作为新原料进行增值利用的可能性。
