Arthrospira platensis biomass is a sustainable source of bioactive products for the food, cosmetic, and medicine industries. As well as primary metabolites, different secondary metabolites can be obtained via distinct enzymatic degradation of biomass. In this work, different hydrophilic extracts were obtained after treating the biomass with: (i) a serine endo-peptidase (Alcalase®), (ii) a mixture of amino-, dipeptidyl-, and endo-peptidases (Flavourzyme®), (iii) a mixture of endo-1,3(4)-β-glucanase and an endo-1,4-xylanase, and β-glucanase (Ultraflo®), and (iv) an exo-1,3-glucanase (Vinoflow®) (all the enzymes from Novozymes A/S (bagsvaerd, Denmark)); with subsequent extraction of the biocomponents with an isopropanol/hexane mixture. The composition of each aqueous phase extract (in terms of amino acids, peptides, oligo-elements, carbohydrates, and phenols) and their in vitro functional properties were compared. The conditions described in this work using the enzyme Alcalase® permits the extraction of eight distinctive peptides. This extract is 7.3 times more anti-hypertensive, 106 times more anti-hypertriglyceridemic, 26 times more hypocholesterolemic, has 4.4 times more antioxidant activities, and has 2.3 times more phenols, than the extract obtained without any prior enzyme biomass digestion. Alcalase® extract is an advantageous product with potential application in functional food, pharmaceutics, and cosmetics.
Keywords: Arthrospira; Spirulina; anti-hypertensive peptides; antioxidants; digested peptides; essential amino acids; food supplement; functional food; hypocholesterolemic; protein extract.