Identification of Antioxidant Peptides in Enzymatic Hydrolysates of Carp (Cyprinus Carpio) Skin Gelatin

The protein by-products from carp (Cyprinus carpio) are normally discarded as industrial waste during fish processing. The objective of this study was to identify and characterise the peptides with a potential antioxidant activity that are released from carp skin proteins during hydrolysis by the Protamex enzyme mixture. This study shows that a hydrolysate of carp skin gelatin and its reversed-phase chromatography fractions have strong in vitro antioxidant properties. Among these fractions, the alanine-tyrosine (Ala-Tyr) dipeptide was identified as the major compound with high antioxidant potential. The peptide has good stability during in vitro enzymatic digestion assay and can inhibit the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). In conclusion, our study proves that both the unfractionated hydrolysate of carp skin gelatin and the above-mentioned Ala-Tyr dipeptide represents attractive novel compounds for the formulation of antioxidant foods.