Release of Leu‐Pro‐Pro from corn gluten meal by fermentation with a Lactobacillus helveticus strain

BACKGROUND Angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides are potential alternatives to the synthetic ACE inhibitory drugs, but the in vivo antihypertensive effects of most of them have not been confirmed. The tripeptide Leu‐Pro‐Pro (LPP) is one of the few peptides that have been proved clinically effective in reducing the blood pressure of hypertensive patients and casein is currently its major source. LPP is contained in multiple fractions of zein, and corn gluten meal (CGM) is hence a potential new source of LPP. For this purpose, CGM was fermented with a Lactobacillus helveticus strain and the medium composition was optimized; the decoloration of the resultant hydrolysate was investigated as well. RESULTS LPP could be successfully released from CGM by fermentation with the strain Lactobacillus helveticus CICC 22536. The highest LPP content and protein recovery of 561 mg kg−1 and 14.92% occurred in the medium containing 20 g L−1 glucose, 15 g L−1 beef extract, 60 g L−1 CGM, 10 g L−1 CaCO3, 0.5 g L−1 NaCl, and inoculation amount 6%. The supplementation of Flavourzyme® further improved the two parameters to 662 mg kg−1 and 36.94%, respectively. The permeate of the hydrolysate after ultrafiltration through a 5 kDa membrane could be effectively decolored by the macroporous resin XAD‐16 without notable protein loss, and its LPP content was further boosted to 743 mg kg−1. CONCLUSION CGM is a potential new source of LPP and its ultrafiltered and decolored hydrolysate could be used to develop new antihypertensive functional foods. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.