Antioxidant Properties of Protein Hydrolysate Obtained from Oyster Saccostrea cucullata (Born, 1778)

The antioxidant activities of enzymatically hydrolyzed (protease from Bacillus cereus SU12) oyster (Saccostrea cucullata) protein were studied. The hydrolysate exhibited a strong antioxidant potential in 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH, 85.7 ± 0.37%), followed by hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging activity (81.6 ± 0.3%), hydroxyl radical scavenging activity (79.32 ± 0.6%), and reducing power assay (2.63 ± 0.2 OD at 700 nm) at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. Due to the high antioxidant potential, the hydrolysate was purified in Sephadex G-25 gel filtration chromatography. The active peptide fraction was identified by DPPH and reducing power assay. The amino acid content of the purified active peptide fraction was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. The active fraction contained a good quantity of both essential and nonessential amino acids. The present study revealed that oyster (S. cucullata) protein hydrolysate is a potential source for natural antioxidants.