Purification of antioxidative peptides prepared from enzymatic hydrolysates of tuna dark muscle by-product

To produce and identify bioactive peptides, two commercial enzymes, orientase (OR) and protease XXIII (PR) were used to hydrolyze tuna dark muscle by-product for up to 6 h, and the hydrolysates were evaluated for antioxidative properties. The results showed that, 60-min OR and 120-min PR hydrolysates possessed the highest antioxidative activity. Then, the protein hydrolysates were subjected to a Sephadex G-25 gel filtration chromatography, and the molecular weight of the peptide fractions which showed the highest antioxidative activity ranged from 390 to 1400 Da. The peptide fractions were further isolated using the two-step high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-1 and HPLC-2), and the amino acid sequences of the two antioxidative peptides from OR and PR hydrolysates were Leu–Pro–Thr–Ser–Glu–Ala–Ala–Lys–Tyr (978 Da) and Pro–Met–Asp–Tyr–Met–Val–Thr (756 Da), respectively. We thus conclude that antioxidative hydrolysates from tuna dark muscle by-product may be useful ingredients in food and nutraceutical applications.