Phoenix dactylifera L. seed protein hydrolysates as a potential source of peptides with antidiabetic and anti-hypercholesterolemic properties: An in vitro study

This study aimed to explore the effect of enzymatic hydrolysis conditions (enzyme types and hydrolysis time) of date seed protein hydrolysates (DSPH) on in-vitro inhibition of molecular markers related with diabetic and hypercholesteremia. The DSPH was prepared using alcalase, bromelain, papain, and protease at different hydrolysis time (HT) (2, 4 and 6 h). Higher degree of hydrolysis was observed for papain at 6 h HT. The results showed that alcalase and bromelain generated DSPHs at 6 h HT greatly improved the pancreatic lipase inhibition activity while the cholesterol esterase inhibition activity was greatly enhanced with alcalase and protease at 6 h HT and papain generated DSPHs at 4 h HT. Bromelain generated DSPH displayed the highest inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) and amylase at 6 and 2 h hydrolysis time, respectively. All the enzymes at 2 h HT except that of papain showed the highest α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. These results revealed that the DSPH displayed enhanced inhibitory activities towards molecular markers related with diabetes and obesity and thus have promising potential to be used as health-promoting ingredients in the fabrication of functional foods.