Antioxidative Activities of Hydrolysates from Duck Egg White Using Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Duck egg white (DEW) hydrolysates were prepared by five enzymes (papain, trypsin, chymotrypsin, alcalase, and flavourzyme) and their antioxidant activities investigated in this study. DEW hydrolyzed with papain (DEWHP) had the highest peptide content among the five enzymatic treatments. Besides, the peptide content of DEWHP increased when the enzyme to substrate ratio (E/S ratio) increased. It was suggested that higher E/S ratio contributed to elevate the degree of hydrolysis of DEW effectively. Similar results were also obtained by Tricine-SDS-PAGE. In addition, SDS-PAGE patterns indicated papain was the only one amongst all enzymes with the ability to hydrolyze DEW. In antioxidant properties, DEWHP showed more than 70% of inhibitory activity on linoleic acid peroxidation and superoxide anion scavenging. Moreover, the Fe2+ chelating effect of DEWHP was greater than 90%, while no significant difference was observed in DPPH radical scavenging and reducing ability. The results of peptide contents, antioxidant activities and electrophoresis suggested that the higher the peptide content, the stronger the antioxidant activities in DEWHP.