Gastrointestinal enzyme production of bioactive peptides from royal jelly protein and their antihypertensive ability in SHR.

In order to clarify the potential physiological function of royal jelly (RJ), we report here the gastrointestinal enzyme production of antihypertensive peptides from RJ. Intact RJ and its protein fraction did not retard the action of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity at all. However, development of ACE inhibition power of RJ was newly observed by pepsin hydrolysis (IC(50)=0.358 mg protein/mL), and the subsequent trypsin and chymotrypsin hydrolyses (IC(50)=0.099 mg protein/mL). Single oral administration of this gastrointestinal RJ hydrolysate (1 g/kg dose) in 10-week spontaneously hypertensive rat resulted in a significant reduction of systolic blood pressure of 22.7 plus minus 3.6 mmHg at 2 hr (P<0.05 vs. 0 hr by one-way ANOVA, n=7). Then, the RJ hydrolysate was fractionated with gel permeation chromatography to obtain the di- and tri-peptides (DTP) fraction. As a result of isolation from the DTP fraction by reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography, eleven ACE inhibitory peptides were isolated from the DTP-RJ hydrolysate. Some of the ACE inhibitors were derived from the RJ-glycoprotein; eight peptides with the IC(50) value of <10 &mgr;M were identified from natural resources for the first time. Consequently, RJ protein was thought to be a good resource of ACE inhibitory peptides produced by the gastrointestinal enzyme hydrolyses.