Amino acid composition and antioxidant properties of African yam bean (Spenostylis stenocarpa) protein hydrolysates

African yam bean (Spenostylis stenocarpa) protein isolate was hydrolyzed with pancreatin (was purchased from sigma chemicals, St Loius Missouri, USA) to obtain an hydrolysate that has (42% degree of hydrolysis), which was characterized for its amino acid composition and ability to scavenge free radicals. The African yam bean protein isolate and hydrolysate samples were dried to constant weight, defatted, hydrolysed, evaporated in a rotary evaporator and loaded into Technicon Sequential Multi-sample Amino Acid Analyzer. And the major amino acids were found to be glutamate (16.66g and 9.23g), aspartate (11.23g/7.26g), and arginine (6.82g/3.28g) while the contents of sulphur-containing amino acids (methionine and cysteine) were very low (1.33g/0.83g and 1.32g/0.51g). The high degree of hydrolysis helps in breaking down the proteins into lower molecular peptides (albumins) which gives an excellent antioxidant properties with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH).