Healthy diet: canola as a new high-quality source of protein discovered

Rape: A new Protein resource for the people

Ever canola salad or rapeseed cake tasted? Rather unlikely, because the protein-rich seed has an intolerable bitter Note. This could soon change, however, because a German research team recently identified the crucial substance for the bitter taste. This paves the way to develop oilseed rape for human food.

Rape seed is rich in Oil and high-quality proteins. The latter were for human consumption not yet usable, since the rapeseed has an intense bitter taste that makes it inedible. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich, unmasked now, the people responsible for bitter and now want to develop a method to transform the bitter Raps in a tasty and protein-rich food. The results of the research were recently published in the “Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry”.

Upcoming bottlenecks in the supply of Protein

The food and agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates that, in view of the growing world population increasingly to supply problems. “In this context are to be expected in particular when the protein supply bottlenecks,” says Thomas Hofmann, chair of food chemistry and Molecular sensorics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), in a press release of the study results.

New protein sources of the country needs

Hofmann emphasized that it is therefore particularly important to develop new crop and native sources for daily protein requirements. Rabssaat lend itself very well for this – apart from the bitter to the taste. So far, you have to create from the seed of rapeseed oil. Over a million tons of crude protein would be the to find so far only as a protein feed in the fattening of livestock use. This rape cake is very rich in high quality proteins, which contain many essential amino acids.

On the way to a tasty canola

The Team of Hofmann identified in the study, the main responsible for the bitter taste. It is a connection with the complicated name “Kaempferol-3-O-(2″‘-O-sinapoyl-ß-sophorosid)”. In the first Attempt succeeded, the researchers to isolate a Protein from the rapeseed that contains less than 10 percent of the original bitter substances. “Still bitter,” was the opinion of testers and Tester in taste tests.

When will the rape-cake on the table?

“Since we know the cause of the bitter off-note, are much easier to appropriate technological methods or breeding strategies to develop with those of rapeseed-tasting seed is probably the end, protein-rich foods,” says the Co-author of the study, Corinna Dawid. Maybe rape is soon as a new staple on the shelves of supermarkets. (vb)