What’s more, researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand said certain proteases or protein-breaking enzymes are able to increase its antioxidant activity.
“The squid pen protein (SPP) extracts were treated with different proteases to generate bioactive peptide hydrolysates that were evaluated for antioxidant, ACE-inhibitory activity and anti-bacterial activities,” they wrote in the journal Food Chemistry.
“The antioxidant and ACE-inhibitory activities of the extracted proteins were initially low, and increased upon incubation with the proteases.”
The result was squid pen protein hydrolysates (SPPHs).
Environmentally friendly
To determine which type of enzyme would induce more bioactive peptides in SPPH, the study used extracted squid proteins from waste water and subjected it to hydrolysis by trypsin, pepsin and a bacterial protease called HT for one, two, four and 24 hours.
“Hydrolysis of the extracted proteins with either trypsin or HT generated more antioxidant activity than hydrolysis with pepsin,” the researchers reported.
On the other hand, higher ACE-inhibitory activities were generated in the trypsin and pepsin hydrolysates than in the HT hydrolysate. Increased bioactivity on all three enzyme batches were also observed after 24 hours of incubation.
“Therefore, SPPHs can be considered to have potential for utilisation as a natural food additive that can be added to functional foods or as an antioxidant additive in topically applied creams, and there is the possibility for use in other biotechnological applications,” the study concluded.
Source: Food Chemistry
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.01.099
“Antioxidant and functional properties of protein hydrolysates obtained from squid pen chitosan extraction effluent”
Authors: Amin Shavandi, Zhihao Hua et al.