Abstract
In order to stimulate the utilization of carcasses of spent laying hens and to avoid disposal of them as industrial waste, we have used these carcasses as a source of functional food material. The chicken extract prepared from the carcasses contains antioxidant dipeptides, anserine and carnosine (ACmix) which consist of histidine and β-alanine. We have also developed the manufacturing procedures for extraction, separation and purification of these peptides at different purity levels using ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and in combination with the membrane technology and ion-exchange chromatography and investigated the antioxidant activity of ACmix using a protein-degradation assay with three reactive oxygen species (ROS) . As a result, we produced four kinds of chicken extracts enriched with ACmix for different needs in food processing and determined the characteristics of antioxidant activity of ACmix which is different from other botanical antioxidants. In this paper, the antioxidant effect of ACmix in combination with other botanical antioxidants on normal volunteers is also described.
