Calcium-binding ability of soy protein hydrolysates

This present study investigated the ability of various soy protein hydrolysates (SPHs) in binding calcium. It was demonstrated that the amount of Ca-bound depended greatly on the SPHs obtained using different proteases, which included: neutrase, flavourzyme, protease M and pepsin. The maximum level of Ca-bound (66.9 mg/g) occurred when protease M was used to hydrolyze soy protein. Peptide fragments exhibiting high Ca-binding capacity had molecular weights of either 14.4 or 8–9 kDa. The level of Ca-bound increased linearly with the increment of carboxyl content in SPHs, and further deamidation on SPHs from protease M improved Ca-binding of the hydrolysate.