Electroseparation of an antibacterial peptide fraction from snow crab by-products hydrolysate by electrodialysis with ultrafiltration membranes

Recently, a snow crab by-products hydrolysate has demonstrated antibacterial properties due to a peptide with a molecular weight of about 800 Da, but only at high concentration. Consequently, peptide hydrolysate has been fractionated to obtain peptides in a more purified form. The aim of this work was to separate a snow crab by-products hydrolysate by electrodialysis with ultrafiltration membranes (EDUF). EDUF, which allows separation of molecules according to their charges and molecular weights, was used to recover and concentrate the active antibacterial fraction. Two different ultrafiltration membranes (20 and 50 kDa) and two electrical field strengths (2 and 14 V/cm) were used as separation parameters. After EDUF separation, the 300–600 Da peptide molecular weight range was the most recovered with an abundance of 94%. Moreover, fractionation at 14 V/cm with ultrafiltration membranes of 50 kDa allowed the recovery of an anionic fraction which showed antibacterial properties on Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Listeria innocua HPB 13.