RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Dietary mineral deficiency, hypertension and diabetes have become serious human health problems. Dietary approaches are increasingly being investigated to address these issues. Identification of food-derived biological peptides has become an important approach to control such diseases. Peptides generated from aquatic byproducts have been shown to possess biological activities. RESULTS: Significantly higher copper-chelating activity was observed on simulated hydrolysis of intact collagen. The collagen hydrolysate generated in the gastric stage exhibited moderate angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 2.92 ± 0.22 mg mL(-1), which significantly decreased to 0.49 ± 0.02 mg mL(-1) after intestinal digestion. The dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) IV-inhibitory potency of the collagen hydrolysate generated directly following simulated gastrointestinal digestion (SGID) (IC50 2.59 ± 0.04 mg mL(-1)) was significantly lower than that of the collagen tryptic hydrolysate (CTH) (IC50 1.53 ± 0.01 mg mL(-1)). The antioxidant activities of collagen and CTH using the ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay were 0.87 ± 0.10 and 1.27 ± 0.03 µmol Trolox equivalent (TE) g(-1) respectively after SGID. CONCLUSION: This study identifies collagen as a good and inexpensive substrate for the generation of biologically active peptides with potential applications as functional ingredients in the management of chronic illness and mineral deficiency problems.