Antibacterial Activity of Trypsin-Hydrolyzed Camel and Cow Whey and Their Fractions

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Camels are an important part of the ecosystem in desert areas. Camels can survive well under difficult conditions, therefore, they play a key role in local herdsmen’s production, life, and economic structure. China’s Inner Mongolia region has unique environmental and geographical advantages, making it suitable for camel breeding. Camel milk has high nutritional value and unique functional characteristics. It not only has low sensitization, but also contains various immune active factors with high medicinal value. Currently, there are various products derived from cow and goat milk, but few related to camel milk, providing an opportunity for development. This study used trypsin to hydrolyze the whey proteins of camel milk, separated and purified peptide fragments with antibacterial activity, and conducted a comparative study with cow milk. The present study provided new ideas for the use and development of camel whey protein hydrolysates and their dextran purification fractions, and indicated the future development of these peptides as nutritional additives or food preservatives. ABSTRACT: Antibacterial peptides were isolated and purified from whey proteins of camel milk (CaW) and cow milk (CoW) and their antimicrobial activities were studied. The whey proteins were hydrolyzed using trypsin, and the degree of hydrolysis was identified by gel electrophoresis. The whey hydrolysate (WH) was purified using ultrafiltration and Dextran gel chromatography to obtain small peptides with antibacterial activity. The effect of the antimicrobial peptides on the morphology of bacterial strains was investigated using transmission electron microscopy. Their amino acid composition and antimicrobial activities were then determined. Polypeptides CaWH-III (<3 kDa) and CoWH-III (<3 kDa) had the strongest antibacterial activity. Both Fr.A2 (CaWH-Ⅲ’s fraction 2) and Fr.B1 (CoWH-Ⅲ’s fraction 1) had antibacterial effects toward Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, with minimum antimicrobial mass concentrations of 65 mg/mL and 130 mg/mL for Fr.A2, and 130 mg/mL and 130 mg/mL for Fr.B1, respectively. The highly active antimicrobial peptides had high amounts of alkaline amino acids (28.13% in camel milk Fr.A2 and 25.07% in the cow milk Fr.B1) and hydrophobic amino acids. (51.29% in camel milk Fr.A2 and 57.69% in the cow milk Fr.B1). This results showed that hydrolysis of CaW and CoW using trypsin produced a variety of effective antimicrobial peptides against selected pathogens, and the antibacterial activity of camel milk whey was slightly higher than that of cow milk whey.