Abstract
Fishery waste and by-products are valuable sources of raw material for recovery of antioxidant and bioactive peptides. Due to the increased demand for protein hydrolysates with antioxidative properties by various sectors of consumable food, health care and pharmaceutical industries, the present study focused in the production of fish protein hydrolysate (FPH) by enzymatic digestion from the backbone of Rastrelliger kanagurta (Indian mackerel) and evaluated its antioxidant potential. The observed results of the degree of hydrolysis suggest that the rapid phase of proteolytic cleavage was occurred in the first 60 minutes of incubation and during this period, the rate of hydrolysis was found to be increased with increasing ratio of enzyme to substrate concentration. The result of the antioxidant properties clearly indicates that the 1, 1-diphenyl-2 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging efficacy of FPH was similar to that of synthetic antioxidants like butylated hydroxyl toluene (BHT). The FPH also exhibited significant reducing power ability and great potential to inhibit lipid peroxidation in equivalence with that of synthetic and natural antioxidants such as BHT and α-tocopherol respectively. The overall findings of the study reveal that, FPH produced by tryptic digestion has considerable amount of bioactive peptides with potent antioxidant properties. The synthesized FPH is a good candidate for further development into a commercial food additive.