ABSTRACT
Naturally, the bioactive peptides are largely found in animals, plants, microorganisms, etc. Bioactive peptides are released in the form of micro- and macropeptide fragments when diet proteins are digested in the stomach. The enzymatic proteolytic process also releases various bioactive peptides during processing of food, especially during heating, fermentation as well as during ripening; these peptides are released from the structure of proteins. A variety of peptides are being identified from fermented dairy foods like kefir, cheese and yogurt. The peptides are formed as a result of the hydrolysis of milk casein, which may yield several peptide fragments that can inhibit the growth of several pathogenic microorganisms. The products processed from marine, meat, egg and algal sources also have a variety of peptides that exhibit significant bioactivity. The biopeptides exert significant beneficial effects. They show antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-hypercholosterolemic and antihypertensive properties that have been demonstrated successfully in several in vivo studies. This chapter will give a brief introduction about peptides, and their sources and functionality aspects will be discussed in detail.
