ABSTRACT
Recent scientific research suggests that food proteins not only serve as a nutrient, but also attenuates the body's natural physiological mechanisms. These mechanisms are regulated primarily by peptides encoded in native protein sequences. These bioactive peptides have health-promoting attributes and are thus regarded as a potential lead compound for the construction of nutraceuticals or functional foods. A wide variety of food-derived bioactive peptide sequences with multiple health-beneficial activities have been identified over the last few decades. However, commercialization of these bioactive peptides has been delayed due to a lack of appropriate and scalable production methods, proper investigation of the mechanisms of action, high gastro-intestinal digestibility, variable absorption rate, and a lack of well-designed clinical trials to provide substantial evidence for potential health claims. This chapter offers an overview of bioactive peptides, and discusses the sources of bioactive peptides, various health functions with some known mechanisms, current techniques for the isolation and characterization of bioactive peptides, and future applications.
