## 3 Results and Discussions
### UAE Effect on Almond Protein  
Analysis of protein in treated and non-treated almonds was performed by comparing their total protein content and their amino-acid profile. Results of protein content from NA, BA and UA samples are illustrated in Table 4. As can be seen, protein yields in the three sample are similar with an average of 25.5%. According to previous research articles about protein content in almonds, these molecules ranges were 20-23% [33] which supports the present results.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & **NA (\%)** & **BA (\%)** & **UA (\%)** \\ \hline
**C16:0** & 6.069 \(\pm\) 0.011 & 6.055 \(\pm\) 0.068 & 5.903 \(\pm\) 0.007 \\
**C16:1 n7** & 0.494 \(\pm\) 0.001 & 0.522 \(\pm\) 0.009 & 0.434 \(\pm\) 0.001 \\
**C18:0** & 1.131 \(\pm\) 0.009 & 1.158 \(\pm\) 0.000 & 1.206 \(\pm\) 0.000 \\
**C18:1 n9** & 71.475 \(\pm\) 0.009 & 71.903 \(\pm\) 0.596 & 72.065 \(\pm\) 0.012 \\
**C18:2 n6** & 20.490 \(\pm\) 0.010 & 20.590 \(\pm\) 0.189 & 20.060 \(\pm\) 0.001 \\
**Fresh matter yield (\%)** & 52.050 \(\pm\) 0.015 & 52.500 \(\pm\) 0.002 & 51.680 \(\pm\) 0.024 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: Relative percentages of NA, BA and UA oil – GC analysis and oil yields – Soxhlet extraction.  
As regards PDI, results observed in Table 4 point to a difference of protein solubility in water for blanched extracts. In fact, heat denatured proteins which explains the low solubility (39.26%). In contrast, PDI percentage for UA is nearly the same as that of natural almond extracts. These two results combined (protein content and PDI) proved that ultrasound has no negative effect on almond proteins, since there was no increase in temperature. Thus, the proteins in almonds treated by ultrasound are soluble in water and are also digestible.  
The following electrophoresis was performed to illustrate the difference between amino-acid profiles of NA, BA and UA (Figure S1). Molecular weight distribution of almond proteins was evaluated by SDS-PAGE under reducing (with 2-marceptoethanol) and non-reducing conditions (without 2-marceptoethanol) (Figure S1). This was executed to evaluate the impact of initial treatment or processing on the almond protein profile. Evidently, no difference of the protein profiles in the blanched almond have been observed under reducing and non-reducing conditions, proving a high denaturation of proteins [34], whereas in case of ultrasonicated almonds and natural almonds, the protein profile was different under non-reducing conditions compared to reduced conditions. We can see an aggregation of proteins at \(\sim\)30 kDa similar to the protein profile of BA. Hence, these results show that UA proteins are more soluble and more digestible than the BA proteins. Therefore, ultrasonication has minimal impact on the protein quality when compared to that of blanching. Nowadays, there is a rising drive toward green and eco-friendly alternatives for the industrial field. Commercial treatments, including blanching, are used when skin removal is required, such as for almond powder, flaked almonds, almond milk [35], confectionery, etc. UAE could be introduced to the production line, avoiding high temperature heating, thus protein denaturation and aggregation [36; 37], and allowing the preservation of their nutritional quality and digestibility.