ABSTRACT
Milk is a wholesome food containing proteins, fat, lactose, vitamins, and minerals. Total proteins in bovine milk consist of 80% of casein (CN) and 20% of whey or serum proteins. Apart from nutritional benefits, milk proteins have biological activities and serve as a good source of bioactive peptides (BPs). BPs are food-derived peptides with a specific amino acid sequence of about 3–20 residues that exert physiological benefits in the body besides their nutritional value. BPs are the constituents of primary amino acid (AA) sequences, which are not active within the protein sequence and are released during gastrointestinal (GI) digestion or food processing; these are known to regulate some specific physiological functions in the body. The bio-functionalities exhibited by bio-peptides include anticarcinogenic, antidiabetic, antihypertensive, antioxidative (AO), antimicrobial, antithrombotic, hypo-cholesterolmic, mineral binding, and opioid activities. Due to environmental and lifestyle modifications, the population is more prone to various diseases. While undoubtedly drugs play a significant role in the treatment of such diseases, the BPs from CN would also serve as a good natural 28source either as preventative or therapeutic complements to the drugs. In the last few years, there has been an increased research in the field of BPs due to their health promoting factors. Presently, proteins of milk are considered as the best source of BPs. The synthesis of BPs with high concentration and specific bioactivity poses a great challenge, while using different proteolytic enzymes, their isolation, characterization, and utilization.
