Antioxidant and ACE-Inhibitory Activity of Protein Hydrolysates Produced from Atlantic Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)

Abstract

Atlantic sea cucumber is a benthic marine echinoderm found in Northwest Atlantic waters and is harvested mainly for its body wall. The body wall, along with internal organs and aquaphyrangeal bulb/flower, is a rich source of proteins, where the latter parts are often considered as processing discards. The objective of this research was to produce protein hydrolysates from sea cucumber tissues (body wall, flower, and internal organs) with bioactive properties associated with antioxidants, DNA and LDL cholesterol oxidation inhibition, and angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory effects. The protein hydrolysates were prepared using food-grade commercial enzymes, namely Alcalase, Corolase, and Flavourzyme, individually and in combination, and found that the combination of enzymes exhibited stronger antioxidant potential than the individual enzymes, as well as their untreated counterparts. Similar trends were also observed for the DNA and LDL cholesterol oxidation inhibition and ACE-inhibitory properties of sea cucumber protein hydrolysates, mainly those that were prepared from the flower. Thus, the findings of this study revealed potential applications of sea cucumber-derived protein hydrolysates in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements, as well as natural therapeutics.

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Orange-Footed Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)—Effect of Different Enzymes on Protein Yield and Bioactivity

“…In addition, the ferric reducing antioxidant power in this present study is higher compared to protein hydrolysate of fried herring (Clupea harengus), which was found to be 3 µmol Trolox equivalents/g [88]. However, in a recent study [89] on protein isolates of orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa), the Trolox equivalents exhibited 80-530 µmol /g. The reason for this difference is probably due to the isolation of peptides, resulting in a higher concentration [89,90], compared to the hydrolysates obtained from the present study.…”

“…However, in a recent study [89] on protein isolates of orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa), the Trolox equivalents exhibited 80-530 µmol /g. The reason for this difference is probably due to the isolation of peptides, resulting in a higher concentration [89,90], compared to the hydrolysates obtained from the present study. The exhibited DPPH scavenging activities of freeze-dried raw material and all hydrolysates were comparable to previous studies [21,49,93].…”

Phytochemical Compounds in Sea Cucumber Have the Potential to Reduce Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Due to Exercise: Systematic Review

“…In addition, sea cucumbers are known to contain various bioactive compounds, such as polysaccharides, collagen and peptides, sphingoids, phenolics, triterpene glycosides (saponins), sterols, carotenoids, and chondroitin, which exhibit various biological and pharmacological functions such as antimicrobial, antioxidant , antihypertensive, immunoregulatory, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, anticancer, antidiabetic, antifatigue, antiaging, and antithrombotic which can be seen in Figure 3 (Suwanmala et al, 2016;Shahidi, 2020, 2022;Yu et al, 2020;Q. Wang et al, 2021;Senadheera et al, 2023).…”

“…The bioactive compounds contained in sea cucumbers include saponins, phenolics, proteins (peptides), carotenoids and lipids (Hossain, Dave and Shahidi, 2020). Based on research, it has been reported that the phenolic compounds in sea cucumbers act as antioxidants which can prevent or reduce oxidative stress in cells, prevent aging and play an important role in controlling various diseases, especially cardiovascular disease, inflammation and cancer Senadheera et al, 2023). Phenolics can inhibit the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines, especially inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), nitric oxide (NO), TNF-α, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) .…”