Effects of Hydrolysis on Structure and Antioxidant Activity of a Barley Protein

Barley is the fourth most widely cultivated cereal in the world after wheat, rice, and corn. The major protein found in barley by-products is hordein, which is also the major storage protein of barley. Hordein is enriched with amino acids that have been reported to be involved in antioxidant activity. Thus, Lingyun Chen and other scientists at the University of Alberta in Canada hydrolysed hordein to produce antioxidant peptides and investigate the effect of protease type and hydrolysis time on the molecular characteristics of the antioxidant peptides produced.

Hydrolysis by flavourzyme resulted to formation of medium- and small-sized peptides with a broad distribution within 30 minutes. Alcalase and pepsin took more time and produced medium- and larger-sized peptides, respectively. Protein surface hydrophobicity decreased as the degree of hydrolysis increased.

The researchers proposed that the large- and medium-sized peptides were most probably responsible for the antioxidant activities of hordein hydrolysis products and could be utilized as antioxidant peptides in food and nutraceutical applications.

Read the abstract at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0733521011000257.