Interest in the use of vegetable proteins and their derivatives by the food industry has grown in
recent years, causing the use of edible seeds as a source of protein to increase significantly. In
this sense, chestnuts have received special attention, as they are natural sources of vitamins,
minerals, proteins and essential fatty acids, and can therefore contribute to the human diet.
Therefore, the objective of this study was to obtain protein hydrolyzate from sapucaia nuts for
addition to meat products as a natural antioxidant. The nutritional composition of sapucaia nuts
shows promising nutritional potential due to its high protein and lipid content. The sapucaia pie
also had a high percentage of protein and a high content of minerals such as calcium, iron and
magnesium. Sapucaia oil had a high composition of unsaturated fatty acids, especially oleic and
linoleic acid. The best condition for protein hydrolysis of sapucaia nuts using the bromelain
enzyme was obtained with an enzyme concentration of 1.0% (E/S) at a temperature of 60 °C
for 120 min. The protein hydrolyzate showed to have the antioxidant capacity to inhibit free
radicals and also the ability to reduce the ferric/ferrous complex and also the ability to delay
lipid oxidation identified by the TBAR's method (substance reactive to thiobarbituric acid) and
peroxide index. Regarding the delay in lipid oxidation in meat models, treatments containing a
higher concentration of protein hydrolyzate (3 g of hydrolyzate/g of sample) showed better
results. The antioxidant activity of the hydrolyzate obtained from sapucaia nuts was proven by
antioxidant capacity tests, and also by the reduction of lipid oxidation, thus being able to act as
a potential natural additive in food preservation.
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