Personalizing protein nourishment.

Proteins are not equally digestible-their proteolytic susceptibility varies by their source and processing method. Incomplete digestion increases colonic microbial protein fermentation (putrefaction), which produces toxic metabolites that can induce inflammation in vitro and have been associated with inflammation in vivo. Individual humans differ in protein digestive capacity based on phenotypes, particularly disease states. To avoid putrefaction-induced intestinal inflammation, protein sources, and processing methods must be tailored to the consumer's digestive capacity. This review explores how food processing techniques alter protein digestibility and examines how physiological conditions alter digestive capacity. Possible solutions to improving digestive function or matching low digestive capacity with more digestible protein sources are explored. Beyond the ileal digestibility measurements of protein digestibility, less invasive, quicker and cheaper techniques for monitoring the extent of protein digestion and fermentation are needed to personalize protein nourishment. Biomarkers of protein digestive capacity and efficiency can be identified with the toolsets of peptidomics, metabolomics, microbial sequencing and multiplexed protein analysis of fecal and urine samples. By monitoring individual protein digestive function, the protein component of diets can be tailored via protein source and processing selection to match individual needs to minimize colonic putrefaction and, thus, optimize gut health.

Hydrolysis kinetics of trisaccharides consisting of glucose, galactose, and fructose residues in subcritical water.

The hydrolysis kinetics of trisaccharides consisting of glucose, galactose, and fructose residues with different glycosidic bonds, 1-kestose, d-melezitose, d-raffinose, and lactosucrose, in subcritical water were conducted over the temperature range of 150-230 degrees C and at a constant pressure of 10 MPa. The hydrolysis of trisaccharides in subcritical water proceeded consecutively, i.e., one cleavage of the two bonds antedated the other. The preceding cleavage was not expressed by the first-order kinetics, but by the kinetics considering the concentration of the acidic compounds, which were produced by the degradation of the constituent monosaccharides. The hydrolysis of the constituent disaccharides, except sucrose composed of the alpha-Glc-(1-->2)-beta-Fru bond, obeyed first-order kinetics. All of the rate constants of the hydrolytic kinetics were determined, and the values were found to depend on the type of bond.

Kinetics of maltooligosaccharide hydrolysis in subcritical water.

The kinetics of the hydrolysis of maltooligosaccharides with a degree of polymerization (DP) of 3-6 in subcritical water was studied using a tubular reactor at temperatures between 200 and 260 degrees C and at a constant pressure of 10 MPa. The maltooligosaccharide disappearance and product formation at residence times shorter than 50 s could be expressed by first-order kinetics. The rate constants for the hydrolysis of each maltooligosaccharide were evaluated. There was a tendency that the exosite glucosidic bond was hydrolyzed faster than the endo-site one irrespective of the DP of the maltooligosaccharide. The hydrolysis of the maltooligosaccharides was consecutively preceded, and the time dependence of the hydrolysis for maltooligosaccharides with different DPs could be calculated by simultaneously solving the mass balance equations for all the possible saccharides.