PRODUCTION OF PEPTIC HEMOGLOBIN HYDROLYSATES - BITTERNESS DEMONSTRATION AND CHARACTERIZATION

Hemoglobin could be valorized in enzymatic hydrolysate form aimed at h uman and animal feeding. Thus, the hydrolysis of hemoglobin by pepsin was studied. A bitter taste in the hydrolysates was encountered, so di fferent separation processes were developed to isolate the bitter frac tions according to several characteristics. Therefore, ultrafiltration , reversed phase chromatography, and organic solvent extraction were u sed. Bitter peptides were concentrated in YM5 membrane (cutoff: 5000) permeate. They were eluted with 30-40% CH3CN from a C-18 bonded silica column and selectively extracted by 2-butanol. They were also adsorbe d on a Superose 12 gel filtration column, and so they were represented by a chromatographic peak appearing after total column volume. Chroma tography on Superose 12 could thus constitute an interesting analytica l method for detecting bitterness in hydrolysates.