Identification and antioxidant activities of chickpea albumin peptides and their fractions following fermentation by Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12

Chickpea albumin has rich contents of essential amino acids, high protein bioavailability and pronounced antioxidant activity. As reported previously, chickpea albumin peptides (CAP) significantly increased the abundance of Bifidobacterium during the in vitro fecal fermentation. However, the mutual relationship between CAP and Bifidobacterium growth remains unclear. In this study, peptide sequences in CAP were identified by LCMS/MS, and CAP fractions (F1, F2, and F3) were further separated by Sephadex G-15 chromatography. Moreover, F3 most significantly promoted the growth of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 (BB-12), and 66 peptides were newly generated after the 24-h fermentation. The abundance of potential antioxidant peptides predicted by the UniDL4BioPep model was approximately 71.43%, which explained the enhancement of F3 antioxidant activities after fermentation by BB-12. These findings indicated that F3, which shows strong antioxidant and prebiotic effects, can be utilized for functional foods or additives for industrial production of Bifidobacterium.