Peptide Fractions Obtained from Rice By-Products by Means of an Environment-Friendly Process Show In Vitro Health-Related Bioactivities

PLoS One. 2017 Jan 26;12(1):e0170954. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170954. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Recently, the isolation of new health-related bioactive molecules derived from agro-food industrial by-products by means of environment-friendly extraction processes has become of particular interest. In the present study, a protein by-product from the rice starch industry was hydrolysed with five commercial proteolytic enzymes, avoiding the use of solvents or chemicals. The digestion processes were optimised, and the digestates were separated in fractions with four different molecular weight ranges by using a cross-flow membrane filtration technique. Total hydrolysates and fractions were tested in vitro for a wide range of biological activities. For the first time rice-derived peptides were assayed for anti-tyrosinase, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxicity and irritation capacities. Antioxidant and anti-hypertensive activities were also evaluated. Protamex, Alcalase and Neutrase treatments produced peptide fractions with valuable bioactivities without resulting cytotoxic or irritant. Highest levels of bioactivity were detected in Protamex-derived samples, followed by samples treated with Alcalase. Based on the present results, a future direct exploitation of isolated peptide fractions in the nutraceutical, functional food and cosmetic industrial fields may be foreseen.

MeSH terms

  • Oryza / metabolism*
  • Peptide Hydrolases / metabolism*
  • Peptides / metabolism*
  • Protein Hydrolysates / metabolism*
  • Subtilisins

Substances

  • Peptides
  • Protein Hydrolysates
  • Peptide Hydrolases
  • Subtilisins

Grants and funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) managed by REA-Research Executive Agency (http://ec.europa.eu/research/rea) under the grant agreement number 605285, project FP7-SME-2013 BIORICE (www.biorice.eu). Sterlab Laboratories and Carminia snc provided support in the form of salaries for authors [FG] and [ML], and actively took part in the research activities in the frame of the BIORICE project but did not have any role in the study design and decision to publish. Additionally, Sterlab took part in the data collection and analysis and in the preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.