Abstract
In India, the Pink perch (Nemipterus japonicus) is an underutilized fish used in Surimi Production. During its processing, large quantities of by-products such as head and viscera, skin, and bones are generated, which are expected to contain valuable biomolecules of industrial and nutritional importance. Therefore, by-product exploitation is required to be investigated for its valuable component in an economical and ecologically sustainable way. In the present study, Pink perch head and viscera (PHV), skin, and bones (PSB) contain 78.2 ± 0.7% and 73.6 ± 1.4% moisture, 2.2 ± 0.4% and 2.2 ± 0.3% lipid, 17.4 ± 1.3% and 23.5 ± 2.5% protein, 5.6 ± 0.7% and 7.8 ± 1.5% ash content, respectively. Commercial enzymes were compared to select the best enzyme based on hydrolysate yield, amino acid composition, and antioxidant activity. Alcalase mediated hydrolysis not only yielded more protein hydrolysate (26.4%) but also contained a high amount of essential amino acids (37%) as compared to other enzymes. The high protein efficiency ratio value of protein hydrolysate of PHV and PSB indicated good nutritional quality of protein hydrolysates and moderate antioxidant activity. These finding suggest that PHV and PSB can be effectively used to produce high quality nutritional peptides suitable for developing value-added functional products.