Antioxidant Activities of Hydrolysates of Arca Subcrenata Prepared with Three Proteases

In order to get products with antioxidant activity from Arca subcrenata Lischke, the optimal hydrolase and hydrolysis conditionswere investigated in the paper. Three proteases (neutrase, alcalase and papain) were applied to hydrolyze the homogenate of A. subcrenata. An orthogonaldesign was used to optimize hydrolysis conditions, and the pH-stat methods was used to determine the degree of hydrolysis. Viewed from the angle ofreducing power, such as scavenging activities against α,α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and hydrogen peroxide, the antioxidantactivities of the alcalase hydrolysate (AH) were superior to neutrase hydrolysate (NH) and papain hydrolysate (PH), and its EC50 values in DPPHradical and hydrogen peroxide scavenging effect were 6.23 mg/ml and 19.09 mg/ml, respectively. Moreover, compared with products hydrolyzed byneutrase and papain, the molecular mass of AH was lower and its content ofamino acid of peptides was higher. Therefore, alcalase was selected as theoptimal enzyme to produce active ingredients since its hydrolysate exhibitedthe best antioxidant activity among them and possessed large amount ofpotential active peptides.