Antioxidant activity of several marine skin gelatins

Gelatins obtained from the skins of tuna and halibut, and from the tunics of jumbo flying squid were hydrolysed by Alcalase to produce antioxidant peptides. Hydrolysis yielded an increase in the antioxidant capacity of gelatins of around two-fold when measured by the Fe reducing capacity (FRAP) method and even more when measured by the ABTS radical scavenging method. When both squid and tuna gelatins were hydrolysed with different enzymes (collagenase, trypsin, pepsin), Alcalase and pepsin gave the hydrolysates with the highest and lowest ABTS radical scavenging ability, respectively. FRAP assay showed that the squid hydrolysates prepared using Alcalase were the most effective in reducing ferric ions, whereas trypsin gave rise to the tuna hydrolysates with the highest iron reducing ability. When the amino acid composition of the gelatins was related to the antioxidant properties, ABTS radical scavenging was observed to be negatively correlated to the total content of hydrophobic amino acids and imino acids in all the samples, while Fe reducing power (FRAP) was strongly correlated with Hyl and degree of hydroxylation.