Cereal Chem. 71:44-50   |  VIEW ARTICLE


Mixing Properties as a Measure of Reversible Reduction and Oxidation of Doughs.

F. Bekes, P. W. Gras, and R. B. Gupta. Copyright 1994 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The effects of reductants and oxidants on the functionality of gluten proteins during dough mixing were studied for seven mixing parameters using a prototype 2-g mixograph. Structural changes in the dough proteins were monitored by size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography and by multistacking sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Using dithiothreitol as the reducing agent, experimental conditions were established that resulted in partial reduction of the glutenin polymers and radical changes in mixing parameters. Studies of the effects of iodate, bromate, permanganate, and hydrogen peroxide on reduced doughs showed that careful selection of oxidant concentration and oxidation conditions allowed an essentially complete recovery of the original dough mixing properties. Size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography and electrophoresis studies showed that samples reoxidized under optimum conditions had protein size distributions almost identical to those of control samples. This test system provides a basis for directly evaluating hypotheses on the functional roles of specific glutenin subunits by incorporating them into reduced doughs by oxidation.