Sequential in vitro pepsin digestion of uncooked and cooked sorghum and maize samples

An in vitro protein digestion study, using pepsin, was carried out in uncooked and cooked sorghum and maize flour samples. The digestibility values from the uncooked samples showed that sorghum presents digestibility values similar to those of maize. In the case of the cooked samples, it was found that a wet cooking procedure promotes a decrease in sorghum protein digestibility when compared to maize. Electrophoresis was used to follow the in vitro pepsin sequential digestion procedure, and infrared spectroscopy was applied to establish its efficiency. SDS-PAGE results showed that both uncooked samples (sorghum and maize) behave in a similar way. The wet cooking procedure increases the amount of high molecular weight aggregates and promotes the appearance of two nonreducible and nondigestible 45 and 47 kDa proteins. These two protein fractions are directly related to the loss of digestibility. It was also shown that in cooked sorghum the monomers (gamma-, alpha-, and beta-) are more resistant to digestion than the corresponding uncooked samples.