Effect of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptide purified from enzymatic hydrolysates of Styela plicata

Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptide was isolated from Styela plicata. The S. plicata was hydrolyzed with various proteases including Protamex, Kojizyme, Neutrase, Flavourzyme, Alcalase, trypsin, alpha-chymotrypsin, pepsin, and papain. The hydrolysate prepared with Protamex had the highest ACE inhibitory activity compared to the other hydrolysates. We attempted to isolate ACE inhibitory peptides from hydrolysate prepared with Protamex using ultra-filtration, gel filtration on a Sephadex G-25 column and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) on an ODS column. IC50 value of the purified ACE inhibitory peptide was 24.7 mu M, and Lineweaver-Burk plots suggest that the purified peptide from S. plicata acts as mixed-type inhibitor against ACE. Amino acid sequence of the purified peptide was identified as Met-Leu-Leu-Cys-Ser, with a molecular weight 566.4 Da. The results of this study suggest that peptides derived from S. plicata may be beneficial as anti-hypertension compounds in functional foods resource.