Novel insights into the formation of soymilk gel induced by ginger rhizome juice

Abstract

Ginger rhizome contains a number of proteases that possess milk clotting activity. It has been revealed that ginger rhizome juice acts as a coagulant to form milk gels. In this study, we investigated the gel forming conditions of soymilk using ginger rhizome juice. Soymilk gels were prepared by incubating a mixture of soymilk (prepared at different conditions) and a lyophilized powder suspension of ginger rhizome juice at 60 ℃ for 60 min. The strength of soymilk gels increased when the raw soymilk was heated above 90 ℃ prior to mixing with the ginger rhizome juice. At a high gel strength, decomposition of the glycinin fraction in soymilk was observed with SDS-PAGE analysis. These results suggest that decomposition of the glycinin fraction in soymilk plays an important role in gel formation.