Phytase in brown rice will be activated and accumulated during seed germination. Changes of phytase activity in brown rice during two stages of germination (steeping and sprouting) affected by process conditions were studied. It was shown that steeping led to significant decrease of phytase activity (p < 0.01), varying with steeping temperature and steeping medium composition. Steeping respectively in demineralized water, 0.5 mM CaCl2 and 0.1 M H2O2 at 20 °C for 24 h led to the lowest phytase activity in brown rice, which was only 25% of that in raw rice. At steeping stage, steeping media had no significant effect. During the sprouting stage, phytase activity increased with prolonged time and gradually reached stable levels, and with higher temperature in the range of 15-25 °C. Phytase activity in brown rice reached 320-340 U kg-(1) after 5 d sprouting. The evolution pattern of phytase activity during sprouting differed with the solutes previously used during steeping. Steeping either with CaCl2 or H2O2 caused a delay followed by a rapid activation of phytase, while for control, a gradual accumulation of phytase activity was observed. Compared with acidic and alkaline steeping solutions, demineralized water at neutral (6.8) pH provided the best pre-treatment prior to sprouting at 25 °C, to activate maximum levels of phytase. Extreme conditions, either strong acidic or alkaline inhibited activation of phytase, and changed appearance of brown rice kernel as well.
Absorption of minerals is inhibited by phytic acid, fiber, and protein because of the chelates formed. Response surface method (RSM) was used in this study to evaluate the effect of application of commercial phytase, protease, and cellulase in rice bran on the in vitro solubility of calcium (IVCa), iron (IVFe), and zinc (IVZn). It is shown that IVCa and IVZn were significantly improved by the application of phytase and cellulase, and the models of two second-order polynomials are recommended for prediction, with coefficients at R(2) = 0.86 and R(2) = 0.88, respectively. Interaction between protease and cellulase also significantly affected IVCa and IVZn. Cellulase had more efficiency than phytase on IVCa. Differing in its effect on Ca and Zn, phytase had a significant linear correlation with IVFe, and none of the other processing parameters exerted a significant effect. The largest increment for IVFe, IVCa, and IVZn occurred in the treatment with applications of phytase at 2.5 U g(-1) and protease and cellulase at 0.2% and 1%, respectively, which were 3.3, 3.6, and 4.3 times, respectively, that of the untreated material.
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