Anais do 15° SLACAN - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos e Nutrição

In recent years there has been a great interest in the use of insect proteins as substrate to obtain bioactive peptides. When used as ingredients in formulations, the interaction of these peptides with other compounds is inevitable and the products generated can be multiple and result in positive or negative effects on their bioactive properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of the Maillard reaction by the interaction of insect protein hydrolysates and glucose, and the effects of this reaction on the bioactive properties of the samples. A black cricket (Gryllus assimilis) protein concentrate (P) was hydrolyzed only by the protease Flavourzyme (FH) and by a combination of the proteases Flavourzyme and Alcalase (FAH). The protein concentrate and their hydrolysates were added to glucose 1:1 (w/w) and heated at 100°C for 2h. After the treatment, there was an increase of approximately 67.4%, 19.9%, and 39.9% in the absorbance at 294 nm of P, FH, and FAH solutions, respectively, which indicated the formation of Maillard intermediate compounds; for the formation of dark compounds, this increase in absorbance (at 420 nm) was 34.9%, 7.8%, and 2.8%, respectively. The Maillard reaction reduced by 7.8%, 11.3%, and 11.8% the glucose content in the P, FH, and FAH solutions. There was an increase in free amino groups of the P solution (99.7%), but a reduction of 85.4% and 44.1% in FH and FAH, respectively. Increases of 4.0%, 517.8%, and 23.9% in the antioxidant properties of P were observed for ABTS, DPPH, and FRAP tests, respectively. For FH, just the FRAP antioxidant activity increased after the treatment (18.3%). For FAH the antihypertensive activity was increased by 54.7%. The positive changes in the properties during the Maillard reaction are mainly associated with the formation of compounds derived from the Amadori reaction and melanoidins.