Identification and characterization of antioxidant peptides obtained by gastrointestinal digestion of amaranth proteins.

The objective of the present work was to separate and identify antioxidant peptides from a simulated gastrointestinal digest (Id) from Amaranthus mantegazzianus proteins (I), which has previously been demonstrated to have this activity. I and Id were separated by preparative RP-HPLC. Fractions were evaluated by the ORAC method and the more active ones were analyzed by LC-MS/MS.

Amaranth peptides from simulated gastrointestinal digestion: antioxidant activity against reactive species.

We evaluated the capacity of simulated gastrointestinal digests or alcalase hydrolysates of protein isolates from amaranth to scavenge diverse physiologically relevant reactive species. The more active hydrolysate was obtained with the former method. Moreover, a prior alcalase treatment of the isolate followed by the same simulated gastrointestinal digestion did not improve the antioxidant capacity in any of the assays performed and even produced a negative effect under some conditions.