ABSTRACT
Abstract This work aimed to evaluate the enzymatic hydrolysis of okara protein concentrate with respect to degree of hydrolysis (DH) in order to obtain a protein hydrolysate with high antioxidant capacity and aglycones isoflavone content. A central composite rotatable design was carried out to evaluate the influence of temperature (40 to 70°C), enzyme:substrate ratio (0.5 to 5.0%, g/100g protein) and pH (7.0 to 9.0) on DH. The optimal condition was 55°C, pH 9 and enzyme:substrate ratio of 5.0%, resulting a DH value of 35.5%. After protein hydrolysis at optimal condition, the antioxidant capacities of hydrolysate increased from 58.29 to 383.49 μM Trolox equivalent/g solids (ABTS method) and 2.41 to 15.32 μM Trolox equivalent/g solids (FRAP method) when compared with protein concentrate. The higher radical scavenging ability of hydrolysate was due to great amount of hydrophobic amino acids (34.92 g/100g protein). Moreover, the protein hydrolysate obtained under optimal condition had 3 times higher aglycone isoflavone content than non-hydrolyzed sample. These results showed that protein hydrolysis of okara could be an alternative approach to increase antioxidant activity and enrich aglycones isoflavone in this byproduct generated from soymilk industry.