A new size-exclusion chromatography method for fast rapeseed albumin and globulin quantification.

The method described in the article aims at the quantification of both main storage proteins, globulins and albumins, in aqueous extract from rapeseed, as an alternative to the current reference methods, Kjeldahl and SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. The new method lies on the analytical separation of extracted compounds by Size-Exclusion High Performance Liquid Chromatography (SE-HPLC) (Biosep-SEC-s2000, 5 µm). The elution of rapeseed extracts with water/acetonitrile/trifluoroacetic acid (45/55/0.1% v/v) during 30 min yields two distinct peaks for the main proteins of rapeseed. Based on the protein extinction coefficients, a calibrationless methodology was developed for their quantification on the basis of the UV signal. The SE-HPLC method was successfully compared to references: Kjeldahl and SDS-PAGE densitometry for the determination of the proportion of each protein. Then, it was successfully applied on two other oleoproteagineous plants, linseed and sunflower.

A new SE-HPLC method for simultaneous quantification of proteins and main phenolic compounds from sunflower meal aqueous extracts.

The aim of this research was to develop a method for simultaneous quantification of proteins and main polyphenolic compounds extracted from oleaginous meal by aqueous media. Size exclusion chromatography with a Biosep column (exclusion range from 1 to 300 kDa) and acetonitrile/water/formic acid (10:89.9:0.1 v/v) eluent at 0.6 mL min-1 yielded the most efficient separation of sunflower proteins and chlorogenic acid monoisomers (3-caffeoylquinic acid, 5-caffeoylquinic acid, and 4-caffeoylquinic acid). After a study of the stability of the extract components, the incorporation of a stabilization buffer (0.5 mol L-1 tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane-hydrochloric acid/1.0 mol L-1 sodium chloride at pH 7) was proposed to avoid polyphenol-protein interactions and/or isomeric transformation. The use of 214 nm as the wavelength for protein quantification was also included to minimize the effect of interference from polyphenol-protein interactions on the quantification. Under the used experimental conditions, the protein and chlorogenic acid monoisomer signals remained stable during 300 min at 20 °C (95-125% of the starting value). The developed method was validated and parameters such as specificity, sensitivity, precision, and accuracy were determined. The results from size exclusion chromatography correlated well with the results of protein determination by the reference Kjeldahl method. The proposed method was successfully applied for rapeseed extract analysis making simultaneous quantification of proteins and major rapeseed polyphenols (sinapine and sinapic acid) possible. Graphical abstract.