Reference Number: 112
Year: 2012
Link: Link to original paper
Inclusions: Flax seeds
Summary
Summary
Recently, flaxseed has become increasingly popular in the health food market because it contains a considerable amount of specific beneficial nutrients such as lignans and omega-3 fatty acids. However, the presence of cyanogenic glycosides (CGs) in flaxseed severely limits the exploitation of its health benefits and nutritive value. We, therefore, developed an effective fermentation method, optimised by response surface methodology (RSM), for degrading CGs with an enzymatic preparation that includes 12.5% -glucosidase and 8.9% cyanide hydratase. These optimised conditions resulted in a maximum CG degradation level of 99.3%, reducing the concentration of cyanide in the flaxseed power from 1.156 to 0.015 mg g 1 after 48 h of fermentation. The avoidance of steam heat to evaporate hydrocyanic acid (HCN) results in lower energy consumption and no environmental pollution. In addition, the detoxified flaxseed retained the beneficial nutrients, lignans and fatty acids at the same level as untreated flaxseed, and this method could provide a new means of removing CGs from other edible plants, such as cassava, almond and sorghum by simultaneously expressing cyanide hydratase and beta glucosidase.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY
This paper unravels the science behind why adding flax seeds during the sourdough fermentation process may help extract the maximum nutritional benefits out of it. Fermentation of flaxseeds has shown to breakdown the component called cyanogenic glycosidesin present in flaxseed that prevents us from utilising nutrients such as omega 3 fatty acids and lignans to the fullest. Although the paper talks about fermentation of flax seeds using a mixture of enzymes, the similar concept of long slow fermentation during sourdough may also provide us with similar results, however this would need to be tested before we can be certain.
