Leaf Protein Concentrate - LPC

Any one knows something about Leaf Protein Concentrate?

Refresh. 3 years on.
Leaf protein concentrate?
Done it with beetleaves. Stays green and retains the beat taste.
When purifying LPC i lose 25%. So not realy profitable.
1 kg leaves gives you 100 g LPC max!

Anyone?

Let us experiment!!

How stupide of me. A 3-letter word. Leaf Protein Concentrate. Some comments?

An explanation of what it is?

Just a quick look makes it look like a high labor process.  I don't know how a home cook would filter protiens out of leafs.
On the other hand, I know sweet potato and amaranth are two high protein leafy greens. I could easily see drying large batches of these. They'd be easy to add to other foods at that point.  Is there enough protein at that point to approximate what you are looking for in the filtered plant protiens?

I have a hard time seeing much benefit in separating out all the other nutrients that are in leafy greens just to concentrate the protein.

I have to ask why. Why?

Is there a benefit to isolating the proteins? Because otherwise, like Casie mentioned, why wouldn't you just dry the leaves and crush them to powder? It's not like there's going to be a whole lot of carbs or fat to strip away for diet restriction purposes, only the stuff that many people waste money to buy in pill form, in less bioavailable forms, only to turn into very expensive urine (unless they pee in their garden, in which it's very expensive compost or garden amendment).

-CK

Yes, I bought dried nettles last winter and powdered them in the blender, and it was very fine.

(I powdered some with dried chives and dill and just a little salt, and it makes a delicious and vibrantly coloured buttered popcorn -- mmm!)

The idea behind LPC is that proteine ( meat, fish , soy ) is not always easely available.
Isolating proteine from plant leaves is a reasonable simple way to improve peoples diet.
Practical:  LPC is produced by pulping leaves and pressing the juice out, heating the juice to coagulate the protein, and filtering the protein out and drying it.(Wikipedia)
PLC is also a proteine source for animals reducing puchased foods.
A drawback is its possible strong offtaste.
The most interresting leafplants  i.m.o. are chards, sweet potato leaves and allium spp. leaves.
Purification is not that easy ,or at least too my knowledge.

Leaf Protein Concentrate (LPC) is surprisingly versatile. The labor process is, in my opinion, no more involved than making bread from scratch. However because the process is unfamiliar to most people, it can appear labor intensive. In addition, when employed at a community scale, it can be very efficient.

While Protein is what most people focus on, as alluded to by the name itself, it is not the only nutrient that is concentrated. I would say that it is closer to a fiber removal process in actuality. It is very high in Protein, Vitamin A (beta-carotene), and Iron (Non-heme). In the context of alleviating anemia, Vitamin A deficiency, and ensuring proper protein intake in carb-based meager diets; it is an excellent way of processing leafy vegetables. Fresh greens are highly perishable, even with the luxury of refrigeration, and eating enough to satisfy nutritional requirements for things like Iron, Vitamin A, and others is difficult even if you have sufficient quantities.

Many different edible greens are suitable for this process and many more are likely good candidates, as long as sufficient protein contents exist and physical characteristics are suitable. The protein content of dried LPC is typically around 55% and is considered to be comparable in quality to animal proteins but just below. Non-heme iron is not as easily absorbed by the body but combining it with Vitamin C can aid in absorption. In addition, many other vitamins and minerals are present in the concentrate, although they are not usually focused on and differ widely in amounts depending on the crops in question.

I have made LPC from spinach and found it to be quite good, with a rather simple process.

Eric S.

Do you care to share the process you use?

Of course! I didn't use exact measurements but you don't need to. I started with 2 tubs of spinach from the grocery store, the rabbits in my area had decimated my spinach crop for that season. Once you have your leafy greens, make sure they are clean and cut/tear them up into smaller pieces if they are large. The latter step is just to make handling easier since the next step is blending. An electric blender is ideal but a manual grinder is often used when the former is not available. I added water in the blender to facilitate better blending, as this step is critical for rupturing the cell walls for nutrient access. Next, the leaf juice can be poured into a pot, and as much juice as possible should be squeezed out of the leaf pulp. Cheesecloth is great for this. My hands were very green after this step but it washed out . After that, you simply bring the juice rapidly to a boil and the leaf curd will slowly coagulate, just make sure to gently stir the mixture so you don't get any burning/scorching. Scoop out the leaf curd and press some extra liquid from it, cheesecloth once more, and you're done!

1. Clean and prepare leafy greens
2. Blend/Grind leafy greens
3. Pour and Press out the leaf juice
4. Boil and Coagulate the leaf curd from the leaf juice
5. Press leaf curd "dry", use fresh or dry for storage

I used mine fresh in a recipe for almond cookies and it worked quite well. Leaf for Life has various recipes to integrate LPC into a standard diet, and several are geared toward recipes more amicable to children. If you do dry it for storage, be aware that sun drying it will vastly reduce the Beta-Carotene content. You get about 1 part LPC for 20 parts fresh greens if I remember correctly. Also don't get rid of the leaf pulp or the leftover liquid, they both have valuable uses around the homestead! I highly encourage checking out the Leaf for Life website, they have great information under the 'Library' and 'FAQS' tabs.

https://www.leafforlife.org/index.html

Eric S.