Trehalose, also known as trehalose and muscimol, is a non-reducing disaccharide composed of two glucose molecules. It is easy to crystallize and soluble in water. , hot ethanol, glacial acetic acid, insoluble in acetone. In the food industry, trehalose is currently being developed and researched for various uses considering its functions and characteristics such as non-reducing properties, moisturizing properties, anti-freezing and drying resistance, high-quality sweetness, and energy sources.
Trehalose can prevent protein denaturation:
Take the egg white as protein, add 5% sugar to it and freeze it at -20 for 5 days. Use the turbidity ratio before freezing and after thawing as the denaturation rate of the protein. Compare the effects of sucrose, maltose and trehalose on preventing protein denaturation. , it can also be found that trehalose has the best anti-protein denaturation effect. In addition, when cow casein is heated for a long time, it will agglomerate and precipitate as the protein denatures. For example, milk coffee is adjusted to be stored at 55°C for 4 weeks. In the milk coffee using refined sugar, the agglomeration of cow casein is clearly seen. However, if trehalose is used to replace a quarter of the refined sugar, the cow’s casein protein will be agglomerated. Casein is very stable and there is almost no protein aggregation. From the above, it can be seen that trehalose has the effect of preventing protein denaturation or stabilizing it. In the future, trehalose can be fully used in protein-containing foods, various enzyme preparations, pharmaceuticals and other fields.
