Preparation of angiotensin-I-converting enzyme inhibitory hydrolysates from unsupplemented caprine whey fermentation by various cheese microflora

Unsupplemented caprine whey was fermented by 25 cheese microflora in order to produce peptides from α-lactalbumin (α-la) and/or β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) hydrolysis. Fourteen hydrolysates enriched in peptides mainly released from α-la were obtained. Angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity of each hydrolysate was investigated. Six of them had high ACE inhibitory activities ranging from 31% to 56%. The highest ACE inhibitory activity was obtained after whey fermentation by the microflora from 18 months ripened Comté cheese. The microflora was identified as a co-culture of Candida parapsilosis and Lactobacillus paracasei. Hydrolysate activity remained stable after pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin treatments simulating an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. This hydrolysate was further fractionated by RP-HPLC. The peptide exhibiting the highest ACE inhibitory activity was characterised as WLAHK (α-la f(104–108): Trp–Leu–Ala–His–Lys). WLAHK was resistant toward pepsin and trypsin treatments but was digested by chymotrypsin.