Procedure for obtaining peptides with antioxidant and antihypertensive properties from olive seeds.

New and innovative aspects

First proposed procedure for industrial waste use of the olive processing to obtain peptide with bioactive properties.

Main advantages of its use

- The procedure of the invention is simple, inexpensive, fast and safe, because it uses basic instrumentation and a commercial enzyme widely used in the food industry.

- It is a cheap source of compounds with high biological value solving the problem of the produced use of waste during the production of table olives and olive oil.

Specifications

In the production processes of table olives and olive oil, is produced a large volume of waste what constitutes an environmental and economic problem. The seed contained in the olive pit has a high protein content representing 20% of its weight, and where can be extracted molecules with high added value as the bioactive peptides.

It has been described some beneficial effects in bioactive peptides, being the antihypertensive and the antioxidant capacity two of the most common and important. On the one hand, the peptides with antihypertensive capacity (inhibitors of the enzyme converted of the angiotensin) are of great interest because the hypertension is the main risk factor of the cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, consumption of antioxidants is inversely related to aging and diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Moreover, the antioxidant compounds are also useful for controlling lipid oxidation in food products. Lipid oxidation is a serious problem in the food industry since it gives rise to the appearance of bad tastes and odors, dark colors and potentially toxic reaction products. The demand of natural antioxidants has increased in recent years because they are safer than synthetic antioxidants and because consumers have a negative perception of them.

The proposed chemical procedure allows obtaining a peptide extract with antioxidant and antihypertensive capacity from olive seeds.

The procedure requires the prior extraction of proteins following a previously optimized method, and enzymatic hydrolysis of the extracted proteins. The extraction of the proteins contained in the olive pit is performed using a Tris-HCl buffer at pH 7.5 containing sodium dodecyl sulfate and dithiothreitol. Then, the extracted proteins are purified by precipitation with acetone. The isolated proteins are dissolved in an alkaline medium and it is carried out the hydrolysis using Alcalase or Thermolysin enzymes at controlled temperature and with agitation. After the digestion, the enzyme is inactivated and the supernatant containing peptides with antihypertensive or antioxidant capacity, is separated by centrifugation.

Comparing the results with those obtained for a control compound with recognized antioxidant capacity demonstrates that hydrolysates obtained are interesting sources of peptides with antioxidant properties. Through this procedure, it is described a use alternative of a waste material such as olive pits and that until now it was not performed. Compared with other use forms of this residue, this method allows the revaluation of this cheap source of protein.

Applications

• Application for extracting peptides with antihypertensive capacity(useful for cardiovascular diseases) ;antioxidant properties( useful against aging, and diabetes or cancer diseases), and useful for controlling lipid oxidation in food products.

Intellectual property status

Patent granted

Current development status

Developed, available for demonstration

Desired business relationship

The group seeks to establish commercial , licensing or collaboration agreements with companies of the food and pharmaceutical sectors interested in both the use strategy of this waste material (olive pits), as in the use of the found bioactive peptides.