Enzyme-catalyzed Production of Oligopeptides from Skim Milk

Silva M. Effect of Some Hydrolytic Parameters in the Action of Subtilisin and Pancreatin on Whey Protein Concentrate

In this work, the influence of some reactional parameters in the hydrolysis of whey protein concentrate (WPC) was evaluated, in terms of the nutritional quality of peptide profiles of the hydrolysates as well as the reduction of costs for scaling-up the process. Two enzymes (subtilisin and pancreatin) were used for preparing 18 hydrolysates, using different E:S ratios and reaction times, and the distribution of peptides according to chain length was analyzed by size-exclusion chromatography. The studied parameters affected the peptide profiles of WPC hydrolysates and the best result was similar for subtilisin and pancreatin, both using an E:S ratio of 4:100, after 5 h and 10 h, respectively. In these conditions, these enzymes gave rise to the smallest large peptide contents (12.28% and 12.34%, respectively) and one of the highest amount of di- and tripeptides (13.34% and 13.00%, respectively) as well as of free amino acids (45.56% and 47.26%, respectively). However, in terms of number of samples the action of pancreatin was more advantageous than subtilisin, since among the nine hydrolysates, four showed appropriate peptide profiles (P1, P2, P5, and P6), from the nutritional point of view, while the same happened only with one hydrolysate prepared by using subtilisin (S3). Also, the economical advantage of using smaller E:S ratio and reaction time was observed in several cases for both enzymes.