A comparative study of protein extraction methods from Morchella esculenta stipes: Comprehensive analysis of physicochemical, nutritional, digestive, and functional properties.

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Citation abstract

This study systematically compared four extraction methods-alkaline extraction (AE), ultrasound-assisted alkaline extraction (UAE), subcritical water extraction (SWE), and deep eutectic solvent extraction (DES)-for their effects on the extraction efficiency, structural characteristics, functional properties and nutritional quality of protein isolated from M. esculenta stipe (PIM). Comprehensive analyses revealed that proteins obtained by SWE outperformed those extracted by other methods. The results demonstrated that Subcritical water-extracted protein (SW-P) achieved the highest extraction yield (25.87%), along with superior protein solubility (53.7%), antioxidant activity, and in vitro digestibility (99.07%). FTIR and SEM analyses indicated that SW-derived proteins exhibited a porous microstructure formed under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, which significantly enhanced their emulsifying capacity, water-holding capacity (WHC), and oil-holding capacity (OHC). Furthermore, the protein extracted via the SW method exhibited the highest total amino acid content (82.13 g/100 g), the highest EAAI value (52.75%), and the highest proportion of essential amino acids (42.73%). Collectively, these findings demonstrated that SW represents an efficient and sustainable method for protein recovery from Morchella esculenta stipes.