Only two studies addressing the effect of enzyme type on
the ACE-IA of WPC hydrolysates were found in the literature.
In the study from our group, the same pancreatin used
in the current study and a papain were used to hydrolyze
WPC, and it was observed that the highest ACE-IA values
were obtained for hydrolysates produced with the pancreatin
(84.16 and 58.76%, respectively) (Silva 2010). The
better performance of the pancreatin was attributed to its
chymotrypsin activity, which hydrolyzes peptide bonds near
aromatic amino acids and releases peptides with high ACEIA.
In contrast, the papain produced less powerful peptides
because it is an endopeptidase that cleaves peptide bonds
near lysine, arginine and valine.
The study by Mullally et al. (1997) evaluated the effects of
four enzymes and showed that the most efficient ones were
trypsin (88.6%) and chymotrypsin (87.7%), followed by
pancreatin (60.8%) and finally, elastase (35.5%). According
to these authors, the lower ACE-IA values obtained for the
elastase are related to the fact that it hydrolyzes peptide
bonds near non-aromatic and non-charged amino acids,
producing peptides with low ACE-IA. Moreover, these
authors stated that the lower results obtained using pancreatin,
compared to trypsin and chymotrypsin, may also be
explained by the fact that this enzymatic mixture has
elastase activity.