Abstract:
To investigate the changes in bioactive compounds and the hypoglycemic action mechanisms of chickpea milk fermented by probiotics,
Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus FMBL L23004 CNN that capable of enhancing the
α-amylase and
α-glucosidase inhibitory activities was selected in this study. The changes of flavor profiles and functional components were characterized in basis of optimizing the fermentation process of chickpea milk fermented by
L. rhamnosus FMBL L23004 CNN, and untargeted metabolomics, network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques were combined to explore the potential hypoglycemic components and their mechanisms in fermented chickpea milk. The results showed that the optimal process for the fermentation of chickpea milk were involved following parameters: 3% of the inoculation amount of
L.
rhamnosus FMBL L23004 CNN, fermentation temperature of 36.5 ℃, and fermentation duration of 17 h.
L. rhamnosus FMBL L23004 CNN not only significantly enhanced the
α-amylase and
α-glucosidase inhibitory activity (30.96%), antioxidant capacity (ABTS
+: 72.39%, DPPH: 83.55%) and the contents of total phenols (30.46 mg/100 mL) and flavonoids (54.69 mg/100 mL) in chickpea milk through fermentation, but also improved the flavor by decomposing beany flavor substances such as 2-pentylfuran, octenal, and hexanal. Untargeted metabolomics revealed that the fermented chickpea milk was mainly composed of amino acids, peptides and analogues, fatty acids and conjugates, carbohydrate derivatives, terpenoids, and flavonoids. Fermentation of chickpea milk with
L. rhamnosus FMBL L23004 CNN contributed to a significant increase in 73 pre-existing compounds and the formation of 775 novel compounds. The potential hypoglycemic effects of 10 key compounds were analyzed using network pharmacology and molecular docking. The results indicated that bioactive constituents, such as
Diosgenin,
Lepidium terpenoid, and
Inulobiose, may synergistically exert hypoglycemic effects through the involvement of the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, the lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis pathways, as well as the Ras signaling pathway. Notably, Diosgenin exhibited high docking stability with target proteins through hydrogen bonding interactions: STAT3 (−8.9 kcal/mol), AKT1 (−8.3 kcal/mol),
α-amylase (−9.7 kcal/mol), and
α-glucosidase (−8.8 kcal/mol). The findings of this study not only offered valuable technical insights into the resource utilization of chickpeas but also provided a theoretical basis for the application of
L. rhamnosus FMBL L23004 CNN in the fields of food and medicine.