Comparison between Alcalase and Protease Enzyme Activity in Edible Bird Nest (EBN)

Mun, Sue Lian (2018) Comparison between Alcalase and Protease Enzyme Activity in Edible Bird Nest (EBN). Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Edible Bird’s Nest (EBN) has slowly become a popular food due to its nutritional properties, most people now consume and consider it as a healthy food. The production of EBN comes from the swiftlet genus of Aerodramus or Collocalia fuciphaga. Due to the well-known effects and beliefs of EBN, extensive harvesting of EBN created a huge market worldwide. Most inhabits in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and so on. However, research found that the rate of digestion of EBN is slow thus the aim of this study was to find out which enzyme is more suitable in hydrolysing EBN which can be easily absorb into our body. Determination of the suitable pH and time of hydrolysis for both enzymes were done in order to obtain the best enzyme hydrolysis. It was also to compare the enzyme activity between Alcalase and Protease. Several tests were done such as Kjeldahl to determine the amount of total nitrogen, sialic acid determination to determine the amount of sialic acid, o-phthaldialdehyde assay (OPA) to determine the peptide content and DPPH antioxidant test to determine the percentage of scavenging effects. The results shown that Alcalase performs better under pH 7 and 60 minutes of hydrolysis time while Protease performs better under pH 8 and 120 minutes. The scavenging activity for Alcalase was 79.96% while Protease was 22.93%. The amount of sialic acid for Alcalase was 30.4nmol/mg and Protease was 25.7 nmol/mg. The peptide content for Alcalase was 1.471mg/mL and Protease was 0.713 mg/mL.