β-glucan is a type of polysaccharide which widely exists in bacteria, fungi, algae, and plants, and has been well known for its biological activities such as enhancing immunity, antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral, and wound healing activities. The conformation of β-glucan plays a crucial role on its biological activities. Therefore, β-glucans obtained from different sources, while sharing the same basic structures, often show different bioactivities. The basic structure and inter-molecular forces of polysaccharides can be changed by modification, which leads to the conformational transformation in solution that can directly affect bioactivity. In this review, we will first determine different ways to modify β-glucan molecules including physical methods, chemical methods, and biological methods, and then reveal the relationship of the flexible helix form of the molecule chain and the helix conformation to their bioactivities. Last, we summarize the scientific challenges to modifying β-glucan’s conformation and functional activity, and discuss its potential future development.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the changes in extraction yield, physicochemical properties, micronutrients content, oxidative stability and flavor quality of cold pressed peanut oil extracted from microwave (MW) treated seeds (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 min, 700 W). The acid value and peroxide value of extracted oil from MW-treated peanuts were slightly increased but far below the limit in the Codex standard. Compared with the untreated sample, a significant (p < 0.05) increase in extraction yield (by 33.75%), free phytosterols content (by 32.83%), free tocopherols content (by 51.36%) and induction period (by 168.93%) of oil extracted from 5 min MW-treated peanut were observed. MW pretreatment formed pyrazines which contribute to improving the nutty and roasty flavor of oil. In conclusion, MW pretreatment is a feasible method to improve the oil extraction yield and obtain the cold pressed peanut oil with longer shelf life and better flavor.

High-oleic acid peanut oil has developed rapidly in China in recent years due to its high oxidative stability and nutritional properties. However, consumer feedback showed that the aroma of high-oleic peanut oil was not as good as the oil obtained from normal-oleic peanut variety. The aim of this study was to investigate the key volatile compounds and precursors of peanut oil prepared with normal- and high-oleic peanuts. The peanut raw materials and oil processing samples used in the present study were collected from a company in China. Sensory evaluation results indicated that normal-oleic peanut oil showed stronger characteristic flavor than high-oleic peanut oil. The compounds methylpyrazine, 2,5-dimethylpyrazine, 2-ethyl-5-methylpyrazine and benzaldehyde were considered as key volatiles which contribute to dark roast, roast peanutty and sweet aroma of peanut oil. The initial concentration of volatile precursors (arginine, tyrosine, lysine and glucose) in normal-oleic peanut was higher than in high-oleic peanut, which led to more characteristic volatiles forming during process and provided a stronger oil aroma of. The present research will provide data support for raw material screening and sensory quality improvement during high-oleic acid peanut oil industrial production.

The hot-water extraction, purification and characterization of polysaccharides from defatted peanut cake (PPC) were investigated in this study. A Box-Behnken factorial design (BBD) was used to investigate the effects of three independent variables, namely extraction temperature (X₁), extraction time (X₂) and ratio of water to raw material (X₃). The optimum conditions were 85 °C, 3 h and 20:1 (mL/g) respectively. Regression analysis was done to reveal the experimental results which include 34.97% extraction rate while the value verified under these conditions was 34.49%. The crude PPC was sequentially further purified by Sephadex G-100 chromatography, and one purified fraction was obtained. The PPC purified fraction was characterized by FT-IR, HPAEC; SEC-MALLS. The average molecular weight of the PPC purified fraction was 2.383 × 10⁵ Da. The polysaccharide was mainly composed of glucose, galactose, arabinose and xylose. The PPC have the typical absorption of polysaccharide.