Abstract

Chickpea plant protein hydrolysates are an innovative product on the Russian food market. However, they meet many urgent needs and may solve some fundamental food safety problems. This article describes some effective enzymatic biodegradation methods that yield hydrolysates and biopeptides with advanced functional and technological properties that possess antioxidant and other bioactive potentials.
The study featured Kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) protein isolate, as well as a number of enzyme preparations of animal, plant, and microbial origin. Hydrolysis was followed by a set of FRAP, DPPH, and ORAC analyses to determine the functional, technological, and antioxidant properties. A combined approach made it possible to reveal the proteomic profile, e.g., a combination of two-dimensional electrophoresis and subsequent mass spectrometry was used to identify peptides. The bioactivity of peptide fragments was predicted in silico using bioinformatic databases.
The efficiency of protein destruction depended on the degree of hydrolysis. At 10%, it improved the functional and technological properties. The best results regarding the time and enzyme concentration belonged to Alcalase 2.4 L FG (2%). The enzymes of animal origin, e.g., pepsin at a 10% hydrolysis degree, also improved the functional and technological profile. The samples treated with pepsin and Protoferm FP showed the highest antioxidant activity (FRAP, ORAC), increasing it by more than 200% relative to the initial chickpea isolate. Computer densitometry revealed that the hydrolysates treated with trypsin and papain could destroy more than 55% of the initial protein. Biologically active peptides of the hydrolysates obtained were determined using bioinformatic forecasting.
In this research, chickpea protein hydrolysates provided new technological processing methods for commercial products. They made it possible to obtain biopeptides with antithrombotic, antitumor, antibacterial, antioxidant, and antiamnetic properties, which indicates excellent prospects in the food industry and pharmacy.

Keywords

Peptides, hydrolysate, biological activity, isolate, plant protein, proteomic methods, proteolysis

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