Cereal Chem 44:211 - 220.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Study of Gluten Properties as Influenced by Certain Organic Solvents.

J. G. Ponte, Jr., V. A. De Stefanis, S. T. Titcomb, and R. H. Cotton. Copyright 1967 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Flour-water doughs made with methanol, chloroform, benzene, 1-hexanol, or different members of the n- alkane family (0.0074 g. moles/100 g. flour solids) yielded glutens exhibiting decreased extensibility, to various degrees, compared with control. Within the alkane family, the greatest decrease in extensibility occurred with C6 or C8 alkane; shorter or longer carbon chains had less effect on extensibility. Gluten expansion properties, determined by baking rehydrated commercial gluten containing the various solvents (0.037 g. moles/100 g. gluten solids) were also related to alkane chain length: hexane-containing glutens expanded more than any of the others tested. The baked hexane-gluten had a well-developed, uniform grain structure compared to the control gluten and to the glutens made with other solvents. Hexane- and benzene- containing gluten proteins were less soluble in various aqueous media than the control gluten protein; the solvents evidently generated the formation of relatively higher-molecular-weight aggregates in gluten. When defatted flour was employed as the source of gluten, however, hexane promoted greater protein solubility than control in contrast to the effects of benzene, implying different interactions among solvent, protein, and lipid, depending on whether hexane or benzene was employed.