Scavenging Activity of Enzymatic Hydrolysates from Wheat Bran

Wheat bran was destarched and deproteinated by a-amylase, protease and amyloglucosidase successively, and further hydrolyzed using Bacillus subtilis xylanases. The yield of enzymatic hydrolysates from wheat bran (EHWB) was 1.84 %. The total phenolics were 0.3712 g of ferulic acid equivalents per gram of EHWB. The antioxidant potency of EHWB was evaluated using different assays, such as iron ion chelation, reducing power, scavenging activity against 2,2’-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and reactive oxygen species under in vitro conditions. EHWB exhibited an effective ferrous ion chelating activity and strong reducing power. It also showed a high DPPH radical scavenging activity (89.4 %) at 5.0 mg/mL, which was comparable to that of the synthetic antioxidant, butylated hydroxytoluene. EHWB also exerted a marked scavenging effect on ·OH with an EC50 value of 0.46 mg/mL, which was lower than that of mannitol (1.03 mg/mL), a classical hydroxyl radical scavenger, and obvious antioxidant activities toward O2 ·and H2O2.