An α-glucosidase inhibitor was developed from Aspergillus oryzae N159-1, which was screened from traditional fermented Korean foods. The intracellular concentration of the inhibitor reached its highest level when the fungus was cultured in tryptic soy broth medium at 27℃ for five days. The inhibitor was purified using a series of purification steps involving ultrafiltration, Sephadex G-25 gel permeation chromatography, strong cation exchange solid phase extraction, reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography, and size exclusion chromatography. The final yield of the purification was 1.9%. Results of the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis indicated that the purified α-glucosidase inhibitor was a tri-peptide, Pro-Phe-Pro, with the molecular weight of 360.1 Da. The IC50 value of the peptide against α-glucosidase activity was 3.1 mg/mL. Using Lineweaver-Burk plot analysis, the inhibition pattern indicated that the inhibitor acts as a mixed type inhibitor.
Keywords: Anti-obesity; Aspergillus oryzae N159-1; α-Glucosidase inhibitory peptide.