Potential of Turkish Kabuli type chickpea and green and red lentil cultivars as source of soy and animal origin functional protein alternatives

In this study, functional properties of proteins from Turkish Kabuli type chickpea (CPEs) and green and red lentil cultivars (LPEs) were characterized and compared with those of soy and animal proteins. The LPEs and whey protein isolate (WPI) showed higher soluble and total protein content than the other proteins. CPEs showed the highest oil absorption capacity (10.9–14.59 g/g), followed by LPEs (6.90–10.44 g/g), soy protein extract (8.23 g/g), and egg white proteins (6.37 g/g). The highest water absorption capacities were obtained for bovine gelatin (BGEL) (8.84 g/g), CPEs (4.90–7.94 g/g) and soy protein isolate (7.94 g/g). The foaming capacities of BGEL and fish gelatin (FGEL), and emulsifying capacity of WPI were slightly higher than those of CPEs and LPEs, but most stable emulsions and foams were formed by chickpea and lentil proteins. The least gelling concentration of CPEs (5–7 g/100 g) came second after BGEL (3 g/100 g). The 2-D electrophoresis revealed the detailed isoelectric point (between 4.5 and 5.9) and molecular weight patterns of chickpea and lentil proteins. This study clearly showed that the functional properties of Kabuli chickpea proteins are superior than those of lentil proteins and most of the studied soy and animal proteins.