Fractionation and identification of a novel hypocholesterolemic peptide derived from soy protein Alcalase hydrolysates

A novel hypocholesterolemic peptide was fractionated by gradient ethanol elution from a macroporous adsorption resin (MAR DA201-C), and then separated on Sephadex G-15 and RP-HPLC from a soy protein hydrolysate (SAPH DH 18%). Identification of the hypocholesterolemic peptide structure was accomplished with HPLC–MS. The peptide with the highest hypocholesterolemic activity was found in 75% ethanol fraction among the four fractions from gradient ethanol elution with MAR DA201-C. The calculated average hydrophobicity by amino acid composition of each ethanol eluted fraction suggested that the peptides could be separated in terms of hydrophobicity with MAR DA201-C. Four peaks were obtained with further fractionation on Sephadex G-15, the highest cholesterol micellar solubility inhibition rate, 81.3%, was obtained in Peak 2, corresponding to the molecular weight fraction of 300–800 Da. Fifteen main peaks were obtained with RP-HPLC fractionation, the highest cholesterol micellar solubility inhibition rate (94.3%) was in Peak 7. The amino acid sequence of this peptide was identified as WGAPSL with LC–MS and amino acid composition analysis.