Recovery of glycopeptides by enzymatic hydrolysis of edible bird’s nest: the physicochemical characteristics and protein profile

• Published in: Journal of food measurement & characterization Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 2635 - 2645
• Main Authors: Ng, Su Rou, Mohd Noor, Hidayati Syamimi, Ramachandran, Ravisangkar, Tan, Hui Yan, Ch′ng, Soo-Ee, Chang, Lee Sin, Babji, Abdul Salam, Lim, Seng Joe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amino acids; Antibiotics; Birds; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Cleaning; Cleaning process; Engineering; Food Science; Glycopeptides; Glycoproteins; Hydrolysates; Hydrolysis; Impurities; Original Paper; Physicochemical properties; Polysaccharides; Proteins; Recovery; Protein efficiency ratio; Glycopeptides; Recovery; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Peptide content; Edible bird’s nest
• ISSN: 2193-4126; 2193-4134
• DOI: 10.1007/s11694-020-00510-4

Edible Bird’s Nest (EBN) is perceived as a priced product due to the complexity and laborious cleaning process to remove impurities embedded in the bird’s nest. However, during this operation, huge amount of EBN waste, which contains mainly of feathers with glycoproteins attached, are discarded. This research was aimed to recover EBN glycopeptides through enzymatic hydrolysis of the discarded waste (EBN D ), producing EBN hydrolysates (EBNh D ) and compared with processed clean EBN (EBN A ) and its hydrolysate (EBNh A ). Results showed that significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) total amino acid content was found in the EBNh, by up to 59%, as compared to the raw EBN, especially in EBNh D . The protein efficiency ratio of EBNh (3.43–3.47) was higher than the raw EBN (3.00–3.13), indicating enzymatic hydrolysis reaction improved the protein quality with higher amount of essential amino acids. Both EBNh had significantly lower (p ≤ 0.05) water activities compared to that of raw EBNs, and vice versa for total soluble solids, signifying improved stability and solubility after the enzymatic reaction. Significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) lightness (L*) and lower yellowness (b*) was reported in EBNh. In addition, EBNh showed significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) peptide, polysaccharide, and reducing sugar contents. Meanwhile, the recovered EBNh A and EBNh D , showed similar physicochemical properties, indicating the possibility of utilising EBN co-product as an alternative source of functional ingredient. This finding indicates the feasibility of EBN glycopeptides recovery through enzymatic hydrolysis especially from EBN co-product, which is beneficial to the EBN industry where EBN hydrolysate with enhanced quality at a lower price could be developed.