Valorization of Camelina Seed Meal: Ethanolic Ammonium Hydroxide Extraction Coupled With Enzymatic Hydrolysis Enhances Protein Functionality.

Camelina is an emerging oilseed crop whose deoiled meal has considerable potential as a protein ingredient for food and feed applications. However, its utilization is limited by glucosinolates (GLs), which impart toxicity and undesirable flavors. Although conventional hexane extraction efficiently extracts oil, it retains GLs. Therefore, this study evaluated a novel ammonium hydroxide-ethanol-hexane (NH4OH-EtOH-hexane) extraction system to address the need for effective GL detoxification while simultaneously recovering oil and investigated its effects on the functional properties of protein hydrolysates and peptide fractions compared with conventional hexane extraction. The NH4OH-EtOH-hexane system effectively reduced GL content from 26.08 to 0.89 mg/g (96.6%) and increased crude protein content from 42.65% to 51.76% (21.3%). Following Alcalase hydrolysis and ultrafiltration, protein hydrolysates and peptide fractions from NH4OH-EtOH-hexane-extracted meal exhibited improved functional properties compared with those obtained from hexane-extracted meal, with the <3 kDa fraction showing the most pronounced improvements. Specifically, solubility at pH 7 increased from 83.83% to 92.58% in the protein hydrolysates and from 86.08% to 95.73% in the <3 kDa fraction, while emulsifying stability increased from 24.11 to 40.45 min and from 41.42 to 48.80 min, respectively. These findings demonstrate that NH4OH-EtOH-hexane extraction followed by enzymatic hydrolysis provides an effective strategy for enhancing protein functionality, supporting the valorization of camelina seed meal as a sustainable source of functional protein ingredients.