Design of water-soluble whole rice glutelin: The rendezvous of two rice subspecies, Japonica and Indica

The preparation route of the water-soluble rice glutelin-glutelin (extracted from two subspecies of Japonica and Indica rice, respectively) system is proposed and tested in laboratory-scale, which can potentially be scaled up for industrial production. The two-components in highly alkaline condition was carefully acidified to neutral to produce whole rice glutelin. The interfacial properties of the system can be adjusted by changing the ratio of rice glutelin origins (Japonica group (JRG) or Indica group (IRG)), so that the surface hydrophobicity can be reduced to expose the charged groups. The created protein structure is robust and could maintain desirable wettability after single droplet drying and freeze-drying. To date, the application of plant proteins has been largely limited by the poor solubility of hydrophobic aggregates. The proposed JRG-IRG system is a crucial step toward aqueous rice protein materials. The potential to prepare aqueous composites was also demonstrated by synergistic modification of plant proteins from different subspecies.