Molecular Characterization and Quantification of Saponins from Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris var. altissima)
Authors: Edelmann Matthias , Hofmann Thomas 
Published: June 2023

Consumer demand for sustainably and ecologically produced food has grown in recent years. However, for numerous reasons, this demand has not always been met. New solutions are still being sought, particularly in the area of emulsifiers, an integral ingredient of many food products. The biggest challenge is the limited scope of application offered by current alternatives. While some progress has been made using foam active quillaja saponins, they are neither pleasant‐tasting nor sustainably produced. Only very little is known about other alternatives, and especially the behavior of saponins, particularly on a molecular level, is not very well understood. Moreover, it is often not known which parts of a plant contain the highest levels of saponins and are therefore most suitable for extraction.

To expand the current level of knowledge about emulsifying and foam active extracts, saponin extracts were made from oat bran, beetroot as well as sugar beet and characterized in close cooperation with the Department of Food Physics and Meat Science at the University of Hohenheim. Measurements conducted on these extracts showed that foam activity is a good indicator of their emulsifying ability. The most promising one ‐ sugar beet extract ‐ was examined in more detail using taste dilution analysis, which revealed saponin fractions with a slight off‐taste and high foam activity. A series of eight saponins was obtained from these fractions and further characterized, together with three commercially available ones that were identified using non‐targeted screening. The unequivocal identification and structure elucidation was performed using a combination of liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS) and both one‐dimensional (1D) and two‐dimensional (2D) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. For most substances, this was the first time that a complete assignment of 1H and 13C NMR signals had been made. All of these saponins possess taste recognition values above 1000 μmol/L, which is higher than most values for the taste‐ active saponins reported in the literature. The foam activity of these substances was measured using a self‐developed small‐scale foam activity assay. It was measured for different concentrations of saponins in a buffer solution. The foam activity of numerous other saponins was also determined, resulting in the most comprehensive overview of the foam activities of individual saponins.

In addition to these isolation and characterization activities, an LC‐MS/MS method of performing simultaneous quantitative analyses of all the obtained sugar beet saponins was developed and validated. These were quantified in several sugar beet varieties (root and leaves), different sugar beet compartments, and side streams originating during the sugar beet converting process. Great variations in mass fractions were found in these materials, ranging from 862 mg/kg to 2,452 mg/kg for the various sugar beet root varieties and from 907 mg/kg to 5,398 mg/kg for the sugar beet leave varieties. Sugar beet fiber was identified as the best saponin source, with a total saponin quantity of 12.7 g/kg, followed by dried sugar beet pulp, with a total quantity of 10.3 g/kg. As a by‐product stream, dried sugar beet pulp is highly suitable for the sustainable manufacture of saponins.

The results obtained are of key significance to the utilization of sugar beet saponins as well as saponins extracted from other plant materials or by‐product streams for use as food additives.