Investigation of novel cold atmospheric plasma sources and their impact on the structural and functional characteristics of pea protein

The impact of three cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) sources, atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ), two- dimension dielectric barrier discharge (2D-DBD), and nanosecond pulsed discharge (ns-pulsed) on the structure, functionality, and amino acid composition of pea protein was evaluated. Different plasma sources and associated reactive species resulted in protein denaturation, increased surface hydrophobicity, formation of soluble aggregates mostly by disulfide linkages, and changes in secondary structures. Enhancement in surface properties, presence of soluble aggregates, and increase in β-sheet contributed to significant improvement in gelation and emulsification. Enhanced emulsion stability was attributed to relatively small droplet sizes and high surface-charge. Differences among CAP-treated samples were attributed to differences in fluence and composition of plasma-produced reactive species. While all three plasma treatments could be appreciable functionalization approaches, 2D-DBD (Ar + O₂) treatment for 30 min had insignificant effect on the amino acid composition.