Fish sauce production is a very long process and there is a great interest in shortening it. Among the different strategies to speed up this process, the addition of external proteases could be a solution. This study focuses on the effect of two commercial enzymes (Protamex and Protex 51FP) on the proteolysis of two fish species traditionally converted into fish sauce: sardine and anchovy, by comparison with classical autolysis. Hydrolysis reactions were conducted with fresh fish at a temperature of 30 °C and under different saline conditions (from 0 to 30% NaCl). Hydrolysis degree and liquefaction of the raw material were used to follow the process. As expected, the proteolysis decreased with increasing amount of salt. Regarding the fish species, higher rate of liquefaction and higher hydrolysis degree were obtained with anchovy. Between the two proteases, Protex 51FP gave better results with both fish types. This study demonstrates that the addition of commercial proteases could be helpful for the liquefaction of fish and cleavage of peptide bonds that occur during fish sauce production and thus speed up the production process.

Soy germ is one of the richest phytoestrogen sources and thus has many benefits for health such as improving bone density, cardiovascular health, cancer prevention, and menopausal treatment. In addition, phytoestrogens are reported to act as antioxidants, removing reactive oxygen species and thereby preventing oxidative damage in living tissue. Phytoestrogens in soy germ include isoflavone compounds and their derivatives: daidzein, genistein, glycitein, daidzin, genistin, glycitin, acetyl daidzin, acetyl genistin, acetyl glycitin, malonyl daidzin, malonyl genistin, malonyl glycitin. Isoflavones aglycone forms comprise only about 2-5% of total isoflavones, however, they express more biological effects than the others. The objective of this study was to compare the antioxidant activity among three extracts: purified isoflavone aglycone extract, crude isoflavone aglycone extract and total phytoestrogen extract. The IC50 value of DPPH free radical scavenging capacity of purified isoflavone aglycone extract, crude isoflavone aglycone extract and total phytoestrogen extract were 0.763 ± 0.016; 3.345 ± 0.076; 6.142 ± 0.050 mg/ml, respectively. The IC50 value of reducing power activity of purified isoflavone aglycone extract, crude isoflavone aglycone extract and total phytoestrogen extract were 1.248 ± 0.024; 3.961 ± 0.172; 9.385 ± 0.272 (mg/ml). As our result, the ranking order of the antioxidant activity (from highest to lowest level) was purified isoflavone aglycone extract > crude isoflavone aglycone extract > total phytoestrogens extract.