Antioxidant activity of predigested protein obtained from a range of farmed edible insects

This study investigated the antioxidant activities of peptides obtained by in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of edible insects. The antioxidant potential of edible insects' hydrolysates was determined as the free radical‐scavenging activity, ion chelating activity and reducing power. The highest antiradical activity against DPPH^˙, whose IC₅₀ value is the lowest, was noted for Amphiacusta annulipes (19.1 μg/mL) and that against ABTS^˙+ was the highest for Zophobas morio (4.6 μg/mL). The peptides obtained from A. annulipes also showed the highest Fe²⁺ chelation ability (58.82%) and reducing power (0.652). The highest ability to chelate Cu²⁺ was noted for Locusta migratoria (86.05%). The locust was characterised by the highest concentration of peptides before digestion and after digestion (3.13 and 5.88 mg/mL, respectively), and the DH was 36.29%.