Comparative study on the effects of conventional and emerging sesame oil production methods on oil quality and protein isolate functionality

Enhancing both oil quality and protein isolate functionality during sesame oil production remains a challenge. This study evaluated the impacts of conventional (CP: cold-pressing, RP: roasted-pressing, SE: solvent-extraction, AE: roasted-aqueous extraction) and emerging (GP: short-term germination-assisted pressing, MP: isothermal-microwave-assisted pressing, GM: short-term germination combined with isothermal-microwave-assisted pressing) sesame oil production methods on oil and protein isolate. Results showed that oils from GP, MP, and GM exhibited oxidative stability indices that were 34.86%, 83.66%, and 116.78% higher than that of CP, respectively, along with increased tocopherol contents. Although RP and AM could enhance oil quality, their high-temperature processing severely reduced protein isolate functionality than other methods. In contrast, GM increased protein isolate solubility, water-holding, and oil-holding capacity 2.01-, 1.34-, and 1.33-fold compared with CP, and gave better emulsion stability than RP, SE, AE, GP or MP. Hence, GM is a promising strategy for producing both high-quality oil and protein isolate.