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

Abstract

Summary 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 IC 50 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 Fe 2+ chelation ability (58.82%) and reducing power (0.652). The highest ability to chelate Cu 2+ 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%.