Radical scavenging and amino acid profiling of wedge clam, Donax cuneatus (Linnaeus) protein hydrolysates.

Body, foot and viscera of Donax cuneatus (Linnaeus) were hydrolyzed using commercial proteases (pepsin, trypsin and papain) and tested for their antioxidant activity by DPPH scavenging ability and reducing power assays. In comparison between all the hydrolysates, papain viscera (28.513 ± 0.165 & 0.186 ± 0.008) and foot (33.567 ± 0.132 & 0.166 ± 0.013) hydrolysates showed highest DPPH and reducing power ability respectively. The active hydrolysates were purified with DEAE- cellulose followed by Sephadex G-25 columns connected to FPLC. Further, the isolated active fractions were loaded onto HPLC for their amino acid profiling and found with the presence of potential amino acids viz., histidine, cysteine, alanine etc. These results suggest that the isolated antioxidant peptide from viscera and foot hydrolysate of D. cuneatus can be used in treating human diseases where free radicals and oxidative damage are involved.