Multi-stage countercurrent process for extracting protein from Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba)

• Published in: Journal of Food Science and Technology
• Main Authors: Qi, Xiangming, Liao, E., Zhao, Kuo, Regenstein, Joe Mac, Mao, Xiangzhao
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Springer India 2018
• Subjects: Original Article; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Krill; Euphausia superba
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6170336/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30333641; https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-018-3368-7

To systematically study multi-stage countercurrent process for Antarctic krill protein extracting and to optimize the multi-stage countercurrent technology, the solubility of Antarctic krill proteins after multi-step dissolution was explored firstly; multi-step extraction was investigated; and then multi-stage countercurrent system for protein extraction was carried out. In single step extraction, krill-to-water ratio and pH were chosen as 1:10 and 12.5 respectively, in order to extract more protein. In the multi-step dissolution process, the protein solubility of aqueous solution at pH 12.5 was 33.0 ± 0.8 mg/mL. Multi-step cross-flow processing testified the feasibility of multi-stage countercurrent assumption. Three-stage countercurrent method using krill-to-water ratio 1:10 extracted, 95.1 ± 0.6% protein from krill, where almost the same water as previous works. The total recovery yield of 67.9 ± 1.6% was achieved after precipitation at pH 4.5.