Snakehead Fish-Based Bioactive Peptides: Batch and Continuous Production

Abstract

There is a high demand for functional foods. Bioactive peptides are potential ingredients in functional food development due to their functional properties, such as antioxidant activity. Snakehead fish (Channa striata) extract (SHFE) is a suitable source of parent proteins for producing bioactive peptides due to its high protein content and hydrophobic peptides. This study aimed to investigate the batch and continuous processes for producing SHFE-based bioactive peptides. Proteases such as Alcalase and Neutrase were used to hydrolyze the parent proteins. The enzymatic membrane reactor facilitated the continuous production of bioactive peptides from SHFE. Bioactive peptides from SHFE that exhibit antioxidant activity can be produced through enzymatic hydrolysis using Alcalase and Neutrase, either in a batch or continuous process. A substrate concentration of 3%, and enzyme-to-substrate ratio of 10%, using Alcalase were selected as the optimum conditions based on their antioxidant activity measured by DPPH and FRAP methods. Based on the calculated fouling rate of continuous operation under the obtained optimum conditions, the production of SHFE-based peptides has the potential to be performed continuously in the long term. Permeate filtration using a 2-kDa membrane increased the antioxidant activity, as indicated by a smaller DPPH IC50 value (i.e., 0.23 mg protein/ml). Further research is needed to identify the specific peptide sequences responsible for antioxidant activity and other bioactivities that might be exhibited by the SHFE-based bioactive peptides. This study is expected to increase the production of functional ingredients from snakehead fish.