Plant Protein Hydrolyzates from Underutilized Agricultural and Agroindustrial Sources: Production, Characterization and Bioactive Properties

Today, there is a growing interest in the valorization of agricultural and agroindustrial waste/byproducts, including through obtaining bioactive compounds. Besides the use of plant proteins in animal nutrition, obtaining protein hydrolyzates could give an added value, improving digestibility and exerting functional properties by the generation of bioactive peptides. Bioactive peptides encrypted in plant proteins are latent until released and activated by proteolysis. Generally, to obtain bioactive peptides, enzymatic hydrolysis by peptidases is the most common way, with or without previous solubilization and purification steps of the intact protein. This hydrolysis step can be combined with physical and chemical treatments not only to improve the recovery but also to enhance the bioactivity. Therefore, our chapter presents an overview of different ways of production to obtain bioactive peptides from different underutilized plant sources, including from food, brewing and bioethanol industries. In order to characterize bioactive peptides, the application of conventional methods and more sophisticated methods based on mass spectrometry is also described. Moreover, recent literature on the bioactive properties of those plant peptides and current challenges associated with safety issues are discussed.

Keywords: ACE-inhibitor, Antioxidant, Antihypertensive, Antidiabetic, Byproduct, Bioactive peptide, Carbohydrolase, Hydrolysis, Mass spectrometry, Microwave assisted extraction, Peptidomics, Peptidase, Protein, Sustainability, Valorization.