AUTHOR=Chen Jingru , Feng Tuo , Wang Bo , He Ronghai , Xu Yanling , Gao Peipei , Zhang Zhi-Hong , Zhang Lei , Fu Jiangyan , Liu Zhan , Gao Xianli TITLE=Enhancing organic selenium content and antioxidant activities of soy sauce using nano-selenium during soybean soaking JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.970206 DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.970206 ISSN=2296-861X ABSTRACT=

Nano-selenium has a greater potential than inorganic selenium in preventing selenium-deficiency diseases due to its higher safety. In this study, spherical nano-selenium particles (53.8 nm) were prepared using sodium selenite, ascorbic acid and chitosan. Selenium-enriched soy sauces were prepared by soaking soybean in nano-selenium and sodium selenite solutions (2–10 mg/L), respectively. Total selenium and organic selenium contents of soy sauces prepared by nano-selenium and sodium selenite were increased by 32–191-fold and 29–173-fold compared to the control (without selenium), and organic selenium accounted for over 90% of total selenium. Soy sauce prepared using 6 mg/L nano-selenium had the strongest antioxidant activities, which were 9.25–28.02% higher than the control. Nano-selenium (6 mg/L) markedly enhanced the koji's enzyme activities (9.76–33.59%), then the latter promoted the release of total phenolics (27.54%), total flavonoids (27.27%) and the formation of free amino acids (16.19%), Maillard reaction products (24.50%), finally the antioxidant activities of selenium-enriched soy sauce were enhanced.