Combined biocatalytic conversion of smooth hound viscera: Protein hydrolysates elaboration and assessment of their antioxidant, anti-ACE and antibacterial activities

• SHVHs showed distinct MW distribution, free amino acid content and RP-HPLC profiles.
• SHVHs were found excellent free radical scavengers and hydrogen donors.
• SHVHs, exhibited strong ACE inhibitory and antibacterial activities.
• IMP, Xanthine, UMP, Uridine, GMP and Guanosine were the major nucleotides.
• SHVHs could be used as natural ingredients in functional foods.

The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant, anti-ACE and antibacterial activities of smooth hound viscera hydrolysates (SHVHs). Viscera, as by-product, were hydrolyzed with crude alkaline protease extract from the same species, three commercial proteases and a combination endogenous and exogenous preparations. Hydrolysates showed different degrees of hydrolysis and the digestion with endogenous enzymes in combination with commercial proteases was found to enhance protein hydrolysis. The resulting SHVHs had high protein content (70.89%–89.06%) and they were mainly constituted by Gly, Glu and Gln, while Tau was the major free amino acid. In addition, they contained high amounts of UMP, Uridine, GMP and Guanosine, while undigested proteins were mainly rich in IMP and Xanthine. Furthermore, SHVHs showed different molecular mass distribution and RP-HPLC profiles proving their molecular mass and hydrophilic/hydrophobic peptide heterogeneity. All the SHVHs exhibited antioxidant activity, in terms of radical-scavenging activity, reducing power, metal chelating activity, β-carotene protection, lipid peroxidation inhibition and DNA breakage assay, and it was found that a medium degree of hydrolysis was appropriate to obtain hydrolysates with good antioxidant capacity. In addition, the SHVHs antioxidant activity was improved after simulated gastrointestinal digestion. Besides their antibacterial effect against several Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, all the hydrolysates showed varying degrees of ACE inhibitory activities and the highest one was achieved by the Purafect hydrolysate (IC50 = 75 μg/mL). The overall data suggested that the SHVHs could be used as potential source of natural antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-ACE peptides to formulate functional foods.

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