Decreased Antioxidative Activity of Maize Zein in Response to Deamidation Rate

Ten samples with different deamidation rates were prepared from commercially available maize zein by heat treating with 0.05 n HCl in 70% ethanol, and were examined for their antioxidative activity in simply mixed protein-fatty acid (10:1) model systems at moderate humidity. A regression line with a correlation coefficient of r = - 0.946 was obtained, when the linoleate/palmitate ratio on day 3 was plotted against the percentage of deamidation.