Journal of Fisheries and Life Sciences

Author(s): K. Elavarasan and B.A. Shamasundar

Abstract: Fish protein hydrolysate has gained much attention in the recent past due to their health promoting properties. The properties of hydrolysates are governed by the specificity of enzyme used, hydrolysis conditions employed and degree of hydrolysis (the extent to which the proteins are cleaved into peptides). In the present study, the effect of hydrolysis parameters on the extent of hydrolysis of water washed meat from Catla catla was studied for two enzymes namely bromelain and papain in order to know the optimum hydrolysis conditions. Optimization was carried by varying one variable and fixing three other variables constant at a time. The extent of hydrolysis was monitored by measuring the liberated tyrosine content at 280 nm. The SDS-PAGE pattern of total proteins from water washed meat of C. catla confirmed the presence of myosin and actin as major protein fractions. The temperature, pH and time to hydrolyze the washed catla meat using bromelain and papain was found to be 0.5:100, 50°C, 6.5 ± 0.2 and 60 min, respectively. The increase in E/S (Enzyme to substrate) for both bromelain and papain increased the extent of hydrolysis. However, one need to be careful in selecting the E/S ratio based on the cost of enzyme and desired degree of hydrolysis.