ملیحه سادات عطری

The direct use of natural phenolic compounds in the food industry is usually limited due to their instability and unpleasant taste. Oleuropein is the main phenolic compound in olive leaf, a bioactive compound which has antioxidant and anticancer effects. Encapsulation of bioactive materials can protect them during processing or mask their unpleasant flavor. Among natural biopolymers, plant proteins have many advantages and can be used for various applications, including encapsulation in the food industry. Since wheat, soy and chickpeas are important sources of plant proteins in the human diet; three proteins of chickpea legumin, soy glycinin and wheat agglutinin were selected to study the formation of complexes with oleuropine. In this study, oleuropein was first evaluated for biophysicochemical properties by the SwissADME server. Then, three-dimensional structure of the proteins was downloaded from the protein data bank and after preparing, the possible binding sites of oleuropein on the proteins were investigated using molecular docking using Autodock 4.2.6 software. The results showed that oleuropein can bind to legumin, glycine and agglutinin by hydrogen and hydrophobic interactions. Legumin showed four binding sites for oleuropein that the binding free energy was obtained -4.92 kcal/mol at the best binding site. Oleuropein has five binding sites on glycine and three binding sites on agglutinin. The binding free energy of the best site was -4.14 and -5.56 kcal, for best binding sites on glycine and agglutinin respectively.By binding these plant proteins to oleuropein, a complex can be produced, and this complex can be used for food enrichment.