ABSTRACT
Proteins and peptides from food are essential components of the diet as sources of amino acids. It has been also recognized that dietary proteins and peptides exert many other functionalities in vivo, directly or after hydrolysis. Several biologically active peptides have been identi‚ed after hydrolysis of food proteins by digestive enzymes during gastrointestinal transit or by fermentation or ripening during food processing. These bioactive peptides have been de‚ned as speci‚c amino acid sequences that may exhibit regulatory functions in the organism beyond normal and adequate nutrition. Once ingested, they may exert different activities in the major body systems: cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, immune, and nervous system. Although any food protein from plant or animal origin may act as a precursor of these bioactive peptides, to date, most of the bioactive peptides described and commercially used derive from milk proteins. Research in the ‚eld of bioactive peptides has intensi‚ed in the past two decades (for recent reviews, see for instance [1-3]).
