Antimicrobial Activity of Peptide P34 During Thermal Processing

In the present work, the influence of pH and sodium chloride concentration on thermal stability of antimicrobial peptide P34 was evaluated under different time–temperature conditions by a 2² factorial design experiment. At sterilization conditions (121 °C for 20 min), maximum retention (36%) was obtained at pH between 5.5 and 8.5 and sodium chloride concentration between 0.4 and 0.75 mol/l. For boiling conditions (100 °C for 20 min), antimicrobial activity was about 100% combining pH between 6.0 and 8.0 and salt concentration in the range of 0.65 to 1 mol/l. At low temperature pasteurization conditions (30 min at 65 °C), antimicrobial activity was not affected within the pH range from 5.0 to 8.0. For the three time–temperature conditions tested, the antimicrobial activity was minimal at more acidic or alkaline pH. Sodium chloride concentration of 0.65 mol/l increased thermostability of the peptide P34. Combination of sodium chloride and slight alkaline pH may increase the stability of peptide P34, which is essential to the proper utilization of bacteriocins in food industry.