Isoflavone Profiles and Kinetic Changes during Ultra-High Temperature Processing of Soymilk

Isoflavone profile is greatly affected by heating process. However, kinetic analyses of isoflavone conversion and degradation using a continuous industry processing method have never been characterized. In this study, Proto soybean was soaked and blanched at 80 °C for 2 min and then processed into soymilk, which underwent UHT (ultra-high temperature) at 135 to 150 °C for 10 to 50 s with a pilot plant-scale Microthermics processor. The isoflavone profile was determined at different time/temperature combinations. The results showed that all isoflavone forms exhibited distinct changing patterns over time. In the soymilk under UHT conditions, the degradation (disappearance) of malonyldaizin and malonylgenistin exhibited first-order kinetics with activation energies of 59 and 84 kj/mole, respectively. At all UHT temperatures, malonylgenistin showed higher rate constants than malonyldaidzin. However, malonylglycitin changed irregularly under these UHT temperatures. The increase of genistin, daidzin, glycitein and acetlydaidzin during heating demonstrated zero-order kinetics and the rate constants increased with temperature except for the conditions of 145 to 150 °C for 50 s. Overall, genistein series exhibited higher stability than daidzein series. Under all UHT conditions, total isoflavone decreased from 12% to 24%.