Effects of l- and iso-ascorbic acid on meat protein hydrolyzing activity of four commercial plant and three microbial protease preparations

The present study investigated the effects of both l- and iso-ascorbic acid (AA) on the activity of four plant proteases (papain, bromelain, actinidin and zingibain) and three microbial proteases (Bacterial Protease G, Fungal 31,000 and Fungal 60,000) preparations using fluorescent-labelled casein, meat myofibrillar and connective tissue extracts to explore their effects on meat structure components upon treatment with individual proteases. While l-AA in the range 0.8–3.2 mM inhibited the activity of papain, bromelain and zingibain, iso-AA acted as an inhibitor of papain but as an activator of zingibain and had no significant effect on bromelain. Both AA isoforms acted as an activator of the actinidin protease and the concentration of AA isoforms appeared to affect the level of activation of the protease. The effect of the two AA isoforms on collagen and myofibrillar protein hydrolyzing activity varied depending on the concentration of the two AA isoforms. The results indicate the ability to up and down regulate the activity of the investigated proteases by using an appropriate concentration of the AA isoform.