Novel Insights Into Peptide‐Calcium Chelates From <i>Lentinula edodes</i>: Preparation and Its Structure, Stability, and Calcium Transport Analysis

Peptide-Ca chelates are innovative calcium supplements. <i>Lentinula edodes</i> possesses nutritional advantages for preparing calcium-binding peptides (CBPs), although there are limited studies on this subject. Therefore, this paper investigated the optimal condition for preparing <i>Lentinula edodes</i> CBPs and <i>Lentinula edodes</i> peptide-calcium chelates (LP-Ca), along with analyzing their microstructure, calcium-binding mechanisms, stability, and calcium transporting efficacy. The optimal protease and hydrolysis time for preparing CBPs were neutral protease and 3 h, respectively. The optimized parameters for LP-Ca preparation were as follows: pH9, time 50 min, mass ratio of peptide/CaCl₂ 5:1, and temperature 65°C. The chelates contain 4.23% ± 0.01% Ca. After chelation, Glu, Asp, Lys, Ser, His, and Cys were enriched. LP-Ca possessed a rough and porous structure, exhibiting a pronounced calcium signal. -COO-, C=O, and N-H groups were contributed to the chelation, with calcium primarily existing in an amorphous form. LP-Ca exhibited enhanced thermal stability and retained most of the calcium (62.33% ± 4.51%) after digestion, and calcium transportation was enhanced in the LP-Ca group (9.57 ± 0.60 μg). Collectively, LP-Ca are studied for the first time and the study is of great significance for developing novel calcium supplements.