Location: Functional Foods Research
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Resolve the unknown biophysical properties of novel bio-based composites and their ingredients to enable commercial fabrication of engineered wood products.
Goal 1.1: Identify and develop techniques to convert low value ag-waste (i.e., fermentation residue solids and seed press cakes) and juvenile perennial biomass into marketable commodities.
Goal 1.2: Identify and evaluate the factors associated with the response of novel EWP panels to various environmental conditions and methods of their ultimate disposal once their utility function is fulfilled.
Objective 2: Convert agricultural wastes and low value byproducts into bio-based pesticides and enhanced soil amendments to increase commercial agricultural and horticultural yields.
Goal 2.1: Identify chemical and physical properties of biochars produced from renewable biomass sources and from low-value agricultural co-products and develop these biochars for use as novel, high-value horticultural substrates and for bio based products.
Goal 2.2: Evaluate the use of alternative pesticides from a variety of low value plant biomass and from harvesting and processing waste streams.
Objective 3: Utilize specific phytochemicals and nutraceuticals from agricultural wastes and low value byproducts to develop new or improve nutritional value in foods and animal feeds.
Goal 3.1 Identify key phytochemical components from low value products and wastes to characterize their chemical and biological activities when present alone or in mixtures for determining synergistic properties for new uses as food and feed ingredients.
Goal 3.2 Use collaborative studies to determine the role/activities of key phytochemical components for use as bio-pesticides in feeds, feed storage, and plant growth systems.
Objective 4: Enhance methodologies to quickly determine and evaluate chemical components and to rapidly and non-destructively assess levels of compositional components in large sample sets of raw agricultural harvests and products.
Goal 4.1 Determine if single step accurate mass spectrometric analysis can be used to accurately determine the chemical formulas of phytochemicals present in extracts of seeds, leaves, stems, or bark of several target plant species.
Goal 4.2. Determine if accurate NIR calibrations can be obtained for glucosinolate and flavonoid phytochemical components in plant species identified and characterized in the previous research project.
Approach
The overall goal of this project plan is to convert selected low-value agricultural feedstocks into value-added bio-products based upon their physiochemical or chemical properties. The specific bio-products being presented are: (a) engineered wood products (EWP) for indoor uses; (b) biochar as an adaptive for plant growth media; (c) slow-release bio-pesticides; (d) phytochemical (e.g. plant natural essences) based functional food and feed ingredients; and (e) phytochemical based pest control agents. In addition, it is proposed to develop convenient methods for phytochemical discovery and high-throughput methods for measuring amounts of known chemicals present in plant tissues. The feedstocks being investigated include residual pressed oil seed, distillers’ grains with soluble (DDGS) from corn ethanol plants, low-value Midwestern growing trees as well as cedars, and pelletized soybean hulls. Seed cakes will include from soybeans and oil seeds of belonging to the Brassica family that are of emerging interest for industrial applications: Lesquerella, cuphea, and pennycress. One notable aspect of this work is that the combination of feedstock and bioproduct were selected to exploit specific properties of each. The research will also make use of pre-existing expertise in supercritical fluids to develop “green” methods for recovery of bioactive chemicals from plants. Finally, the phytochemical discovery element will be expanded to other crops or plants of emerging interest to further arbitrage newly developed methods.
Progress Report
Objective 1: No further progress has been made on this objective due to the retirement of one of our scientists in 2021.
Objective 2: Low-value agricultural co-products are being used to make biochar which can be combined with a variety of low-value wastes to create novel bioproducts and soil amendments. Co-products include harvest residuals and waste products from agricultural processing, such as soybean hulls, biosolids from municipal sewage solids, and agricultural processing waste streams (e.g., wood sawdust). Pyrolysis (heating at high temperatures under anaerobic conditions) of biosolids eliminates most of the environmental problems associated with them, such as the presence of pathogens, organic chemicals (pesticides, pharmaceuticals) and microplastics. It was determined that the addition of pyrolyzed biosolids to greenhouse potting substrates and to large-scale turf systems such as golf greens, golf tees, and athletic fields can greatly increase plant growth, especially in sandy soils. Pyrolyzed biosolids also confer greater resistance to rapid microbial decomposition and therefore have longevity in these applications. Current work involves the development of biochar for chemical spill cleanups utilizing a variety of low value materials.
Gum Arabic is an imported natural plant gum commonly used to thicken and emulsify foods. However, it also contains a protein known to cause allergic reactions. Therefore, a quality domestic alternative to gum Arabic is preferred. Domestic Frost grapes (Vitis riparia Michx.) have been shown to produce a polysaccharide which is very similar to gum Arabic with excellent thickening and emulsification properties but without its allergenic proteins. ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, investigated the development of an extraction and purification method for the frost grape polysaccharide (FGP). The amount of FGP collected from living grape vines varied with the time of year. A ratio of water to grape chips of about 40 to 1 gave an excellent yield of FGP. The optimal size of grape chips for extraction was found to be between 1.8 and 3.8 mm. Passing the extraction water through a non-polar filter removed co-extracted colored contaminants from the extract leading to higher quality FGP. Pre-extracting the frost grape chips with methanol also removed many colored materials from the FGP. The FGP had better emulsification activity than gum Arabic. Sugars such as glucose and fructose present in crude FGP extracts could be separated from the FGP using ultrafiltration or ethanol precipitation. This purification step leads to a more stable product, providing a means to obtain purified FGP suitable for food applications.
Objective 3: The new ARS project “Integration of Hemp Production into U.S. Farming Systems” has the objective to provide agronomic information that helps support the incorporation of hemp into farming operations within the United States. The Global Hemp Innovation Center (Corvallis, Oregon) is collaborating on ARS research in Peoria, Illinois; Lexington, Kentucky; and Corvallis, Oregon. Research began on postproduction aspects of hemp for use in a variety of new products and applications. Collaboration has been developed to develop rapid and robust analytical methods for cannabinoids in hemp samples, and use these methods to measure cannabinoid composition in hemp plant field trials coordinated by the Global Hemp Innovation Center at Oregon State University to develop an understanding of the effect of cultivar and environmental factors on cannabinoid accumulation in hemp. This is going to be integrated with hemp germplasm evaluation work in Oregon, California, and with the hemp breeding program coordinated by ARS researchers in Geneva, New York, and in Lexington, Kentucky.
This new hemp funding supported ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, to develop and validate a reproducible extraction and measuring procedure to be used worldwide for detecting the total tetrahydrohydrocannabinoid (THC) concentrations (total THC: the sum of delta-9 tetrahydrohydrocannabinol (d-9 THC) and tetrahydrohydrocannabinoic acid (THCA) concentrations) in hemp materials, which must be below 0.3% total THC to be used as hemp. Meeting this standard is a challenge to U.S. hemp producers and requires clear and reproducible analytical methodology. Developing and proving a standard method will assist in the exportation of hemp and hemp products across state and international borders.
ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, have evaluated thousands of samples sent from hemp flower production from the southern Oregon study and another study done at the University of California at Davis. Manuscript preparation is underway. We have evaluated the flower cannabinoid content of over 50 cultivars under study at the ARS location in Geneva, New York, and for the ARS location in Lexington, Kentucky, to provide them with accurate cannabinoid assessments for their breeding and evaluation programs. ARS researchers in Peoria, Illinois, participated in the National Institute of Standards and Technology cannabinoid evaluation test program with several other labs to examine the reproducibility of analytical methods, the results of which will be published sometime next fiscal year.
Under Objective 4: Nondestructive spectral analysis techniques such as near infrared spectrometry (NIRS) are rapid and have been shown to be comprehensive. It has been shown that NIRS can be applied to the determination of certain phytochemicals in seeds such as the isoflavones in soybeans. This methodology is being applied to other agricultural products. This technology is now being applied to new analytical requirements such as the components in industrial hemp as noted above.
Accomplishments
1. Development of a soybean hull/soybean hull biochar-based cat litter. Soybean hulls are a coproduct from the processing of soybeans for meal and oil, and have been primarily used for animal feed, with a relatively low current economic (approximately $150 U.S./ton) value. A team of ARS researchers at Peoria, Illinois, developed a biobased cat litter from soybean hulls and soybean hull biochar. The soybean hull/biochar litter was found to have superior or equal properties (e.g., odor reduction, liquid absorption, clumping ability, dust production/tracking, suppression of microorganisms) compared to the four leading biobased cat litters currently on the market. Production of the litter is relatively simple and requires only four other components in addition to the hulls and biochar and should be straightforward to scale up to commercial production levels. The use of soybean hulls/soybean hull biochar as a biobased cat litter provides a new, value-added use for this material.
2. Extraction, purification, and characterization of a novel food gum from a native grape species. Gum Arabic is an imported natural plant gum commonly used to thicken and emulsify foods, but contains a protein known to cause allergic reactions, and there are currently no domestic alternatives. Frost grapes, a plant native to the northern U.S., have been shown to produce a gum (FGP) which is very similar to gum Arabic with excellent thickening and emulsification properties but without its allergenic proteins. However, obtaining commercial amounts of the grape gum have not been possible. A team of ARS researchers at Peoria, Illinois, developed extraction and purification technologies to obtain good yields of FGP from frost grape stems. Unwanted sugars present in crude FGP extracts could be separated from the FGP using filtration and precipitation methods the team developed, leading to a purer and more stable product. These results provide means to obtain purified FGP suitable for commercial food applications.
3. Developing and validating the measurement of phytochemical composition in hemp. New hemp funding supported ARS researchers at Peoria, Illinois, to develop and validate a reproducible extraction procedure to be used worldwide for detecting total tetrahydrohydrocannabinoid (THC) concentrations (total THC: the sum of delta-9 tetrahydrohydrocannabinol (THCd9) and tetrahydrohydrocannabinoic acid (THCA) concentrations) and 18 other cannabinoids in hemp materials, with a focus on ensuring that the total THC is below 0.3%. Meeting this standard is a challenge to U.S. hemp producers and requires clear and reproducible analytical methodology. These methods have been included in the USDA Hemp Descriptor and Phenotyping Handbook, Version 3. Cannabinoid composition data, such as total THC content, from ARS researchers at Peoria, Illinois, have been included in the GRIN-Global database. Our data allows for hemp cultivars curated by the Plant Genetic Resources Unit at Geneva, New York to be released to the public domain for research and educational purposes enabling for the development of new hemp-derived materials.
Review Publications
Vaughn, S.F., Liu, S.X., Berhow, M.A., Moser, J.K., Peterson, S.C., Selling, G.W., Hay, W.T., Jackson, M.A., Skory, C.D. 2023. Production of an odor-reducing, low-dust, clumping cat litter from soybean hulls and soybean hull biochar. Bioresource Technology Reports. 21. Article 101317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2022.101317.
Moser, J.K., Hwang, H., Byars, J.A., Vaughn, S.F., Aurandt-Pilgrim, J., Kern, O. 2022. Variations in phytochemical content and composition in distillers corn oil from 30 U.S. ethanol plants. Industrial Crops and Products. 193. Article 116108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2022.116108.
Flor-Weiler, L., Behle, R.W., Berhow, M.A., McCormick, S.P., Vaughn, S.F., Muturi, E.J., Hay, W.T. 2023. Bioactivity of brassica seed meals and its compounds as ecofriendly larvicides against mosquitoes. Scientific Reports. 13. Article 3936. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30563-6.
Alhomodi, A.F., Berhow, M.A., Gibbons, W.R., Monono, E., Karki, B. 2022. Meal nutritional characteristics and oil profile of sprouted, dehulled, and solvent-extracted canola. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 102(11):4410-4418. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.11794.
Fonseca Hernandez, D., Mojica, L., Berhow, M.A., Brownstein, K., Lugo Cervantes, E., Gonzalez De Mejia, E. 2023. Black and pinto beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) unique mexican varieties exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential. Food Research International. 169. Article 112816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112816.
Eller, F.J., Vaughn, S.F., Price, N.P., Kenar, J.A., Jackson, M.A., Berhow, M.A., Brownstein, K.J., Selling, G.W. 2023. Extraction, purification and characterization of an arabinogalactan from frost (riverbank) grape (Vitis riparia michx.) stems. BioResources. 18(3): 4610-4635. https://doi.org/10.15376/biores.18.3.4610-4635.
