Separation of iron-binding protein from whey through enzymatic hydrolysis

Whey protein concentrate (WPC) was hydrolyzed by nine proteolytic enzymes to examine the effectiveness of the hydrolysates to bind iron. Degree of WPC hydrolysis was higher with pancreatin (13.91%), alcalase (13.60%), and flavourzyme (12.80%) compared with other enzymes (esperase, neutrase, papain, pepsin, protease and trypsin). Tricine sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography analyses revealed maximum hydrolysis of α-LA and β-LG with alcalase. Molecular masses of peptides derived from alcalase hydrolysate were smaller than 6.5 kDa. Iron-binding by alcalase hydrolysate was the highest (97.6%) of all other hydrolysates. Using ion-exchange chromatography alcalase hydrolysate was eluted at a 0.25 m NaCl gradient concentration with higher iron-binding ability. This eluted fraction had higher Lys (18.09%), Ala (17.24%), and Phe (16.58%) contents. Alcalase showed noticeably better effectiveness than other enzymes to produce a hydrolysate for the separation of iron-binding peptides derived from WPC.