Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

Pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo) is a promising source of protein and protein hydrolysis allows the production of ingredients with high applicability in the food and pharmaceutical industries. However, the industrial enzymatic hydrolysis presents some challenges, due to the high cost of the enzymes, long reaction time, low degree of hydrolysis and limited yield. To overcome these obstacles, ultrasound (US) can be used to improve enzymatic performance. Thus, the effect of the pre-processing of alcalase and pumpkin seed proteins (PSP) by US on the enzymatic activity was evaluated. Furthermore, the hydrolysis kinetics were investigated using US pre-processed alcalase and PSP under activation conditions, as well as the US-assisted reaction to determine the hydrolysis rate and the final degree of hydrolysis (DH). The PSP were obtained using the alkaline extraction with isoelectric precipitation and the optimum conditions of pH (7.5) and temperature (60°C) of the alcalase using the PSP as substrate were determined. Subsequently, the enzyme and PSP were pre-processed separately by US (40kHz, 23.8W/L), at pH 7.5, under optimal (60°C) and non-optimal (25 and 40°C) temperature conditions for up to 300min. US as pre-processing of alcalase and PSP promoted an enzymatic activation of up to 10.3% and 50.1%, respectively (p<0.05). Temperature was an important variable, as its increase caused a reduction in the US effect. The PSP hydrolysis using the conditions potentiated by US provided an acceleration of the hydrolysis rate (increase by up to 280%) and a higher final DH (increase of up to 16%) (p<0.05). In ascending order, the processes that had the best results were US pre-processed alcalase< US-assisted hydrolysis< US pre-processed PSP. Therefore, the US appears as an attractive alternative to improve the performance of alcalase in the hydrolysis of PSP aiming at the production of compounds of industrial interest with adequate cost, quality and yield.