Malays. Appl. Biol. (2019) 48(2): 63–69
COMPARISON OF AMINO ACIDS PROFILE AND ANTIOXIDANT
ACTIVITIES BETWEEN EDIBLE BIRD NEST AND CHICKEN EGG
AHLAM ABDASLAM M ALI, HIDAYATI SYAMIMI MOHD NOOR, POH KEI CHONG,
ABDUL SALAM BABJI and SENG JOE LIM*
Centre for Biotechnology and Functional Food, Faculty of Science and Technology,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
*E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Accepted 9 May 2019, Published online 31 May 2019
ABSTRACT
Edible bird’s nest (EBN) and eggs are sources of high quality protein. The objectives of this study were to compare the amino acid profile between EBN and eggs to determine the differences in nutrition composition and antioxidant properties. Amino acid profile and antioxidant properties (DPPH, ABTS and FRAP) of four samples, raw EBN (EBNraw), EBN hydrolysates (EBNh), commercial chicken egg (Eggcomm) and free range chicken egg (EggFR) were determined and correlated with one another. It was found that EBNraw and EBNh have significantly higher (p<0.05) DPPH and ABTS activities compared to Eggcomm and EggFR, whereas Eggcomm and EggFR have significantly higher (p<0.05) FRAP activities compared to EBNraw and EBNh. Amino acid profile analysis showed that Eggcomm and EggFR have significantly higher (p<0.05) methionine, cysteine, lysine and isoleucine content compared to EBNraw and EBNh. Histidine, proline, phenylalanine and tryptophan in EBN were found to have significant (p<0.01) positive correlation with DPPH and ABTS antioxidant activities assays, while methionine and cysteine in chicken eggs have significant (p<0.01) positive correlation with FRAP activity. In conclusion, both EBN and chicken eggs are good sources of proteins and essential amino acids, but EBN showed higher antioxidant activities.
Key words: Antioxidant activity, amino acid profile, edible bird’s nest, chicken eggs
