Production of antihypertensive and antioxidant activities by enzymatic hydrolysis of protein concentrates recovered by ultrafiltration from cuttlefish processing wastewaters

•UF at 100, 30 and 10 kDa effectively recovers protein from cuttlefish wastewater.•Low MWCO membranes show a rather low protein recovery.•Cuttlefish protein concentrates proteolysis improves their ACE inhibitory activity.•Sequential UF-fractionation enriches in peptides with high ACE inhibitory activity.•Boiling effluents show the highest antioxidant and antihypertensive properties.

This work focuses on the production of antihypertensive and antioxidant activities using enzymatic hydrolysis of protein concentrates recovered by ultrafiltration of different wastewaters from the industrial processing of cuttlefish (Illex argentinus). The effluents were produced in the processes of thawing (E1), softening (E2), boiling (E3) and gelation (E4). Our results showed that membranes with cut-off at 100, 30 and 10 kDa were an effective resource to protein concentration of E2 and E3 but limited for E1 and E4. In addition, E2 and E3 retentates led to remarkable antihypertensive and antioxidant activities, further improved by enzymatic hydrolysis. Also sequential ultrafiltration revealed the enrichment of these protein concentrates in peptides with high angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity. Thereby, UF-fractionation followed by proteolysis of protein concentrates from cuttlefish wastewaters offers new opportunities for the development of bioactive hydrolysates with application in the food industry. In addition, this approach contributes to an improved depuration of industrial wastewaters, reducing the treatment costs and leading to a decrease in its contaminating effect.

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