According to reports from the World Health Organization (WHO), nontransmissible chronic diseases, like diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, hypertension,
and cancer, among others, are the main causes of death worldwide, comprising 70% of
the total deaths. Therefore, there is a great interest in the search for alternative
biofunctional agents that can contribute to the prevention and treatment of these types
of diseases. Particularly, biologically active peptides (BAPs) represent an attractive and
promising alternative due to their therapeutic potential, since they can act in similar
ways to synthetic drugs. In this respect, BAPs extracted from food proteins of
vegetable origin have shown antioxidant, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anticancer,
antithrombotic, anticholesterolemic, immunomodulatory, antiobesity, antiaging, and
antimicrobial properties, thus showing great potential as bioactive ingredients in
functional foods and pharmaceutical formulas. This chapter describes the main
procedures performed for the identification and production of BAPs, as well as the
health benefits of their biofunctionalities found in bioassays in vitro and in vivo, the
elucidation of their mechanisms of action and the therapeutic applications of BAPs
originated from underutilized vegetable sources.
Keywords: Bioassays, Bio-functionality, Bioinformatics, Biotechnological processes, Endopeptidases, Enzymatic activity, Enzymes, Exopeptidases, Fermentation, Health benefits, Hydrophobicity, IC50, Multifunctionality, Peptides, Protein hydrolysate, Proteolytic enzymes, Therapeutic potential, Vegetal sources.
