Patent ID: 7091001

Claim:
A process for the preparation of peptides having an arginine:lysine ratio of at least 5.5:1, the process comprising: a. mixing groundnut flour with water in a ratio in the range of 1:20 to 1:2 w/v to obtain a slurry with a pH range of 8–9; b. centrifuging the slurry of (a) at a speed in the range of 6000 to 8000 rpm for period in the range of 20 to 30 minutes to recover the supernatant; c. precipitating the supernatant of (b) at a pH in the range of 4 to 5 to obtain a protein precipitate; d. dispersing the precipitate of (c) in water in a ratio of about 1:3 w/v; e. neutralizing the dispersed precipitate of (d) using alkali to a pH range from 6.8 to 7.4; f. drying the neutralized precipitate of (e) to obtain protein isolate powder; g. dispersing the protein isolate powder of (f) in water in a ratio of about 1:10 w/v to obtain an aqueous slurry of protein isolate; h. adjusting the pH and temperature of the aqueous slurry of (g) in the range of 6 to 7 using acid and 40 to 45° C. respectively; i. hydrolyzing the slurry of (h) using protease enzyme at a concentration in the range of 0.8–1.5% for a period in the range of 3 to 6 hours; j. inactivating the protease enzyme of the hydrolyzed slurry by heating the slurry of (i) to a temperature in the range of from 70 to 75° C.; k. cooling the hydrolyzed slurry of (j) to a temperature in the range of 27 to 32° C.; l. centrifuging the hydrolyzed slurry of (k) at a rpm in the range of 8000 to 10,000 for a period in the range of 50 to 60 minutes to obtain a clear supernatant; m. ultrafiltering the clear supernatant of (I) through a membrane of 30,000 Daltons molecular weight cut off to obtain a permeate; n. further ultrafiltering the permeate of (m) through a 3,000 Daltons molecular weight cut off membrane to obtain a retentate peptide mixture having an arginine:lysine ratio of at least 5.5:1.