Abstract
Soy consumption has been associated with many potential health benefits in reducing chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, insulin-resistance/type II diabetes, certain type of cancers, and immune disorders. These physiological functions have been attributed to soy proteins either as intact soy protein or more commonly as functional or bioactive peptides derived from soybean processing. These findings have led to the approval of a health claim in the USA regarding the ability of soy proteins in reducing the risk for coronary heart disease and the acceptance of a health claim in Canada that soy protein can help lower cholesterol levels. Using different approaches, many soy bioactive peptides that have a variety of physiological functions such as hypolipidemic, anti-hypertensive, and anti-cancer properties, and anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects have been identified. Some soy peptides like lunasin and soymorphins possess more than one of these properties and play a role in the prevention of multiple chronic diseases. Overall, progress has been made in understanding the functional and bioactive components of soy. However, more studies are required to further identify their target organs, and elucidate their biological mechanisms of action in order to be potentially used as functional foods or even therapeutics for the prevention or treatment of chronic diseases.
Highlights
Soybean (Glycine max) was cultivated in Asia for nearly 5000 years, first in China, in Japan.It was introduced to Europe in the 18th century and to the United States in the 19th century [1,2,3].Soybean has been an important economic crop in the United States since the 1940s
The popularity of soy foods or products has been rising in North America over the last decades, after the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the food health claim linking soy protein to the reduction of the risk for coronary heart disease in 1999 [4,5,6,7]
This paper summarizes the current knowledge about the soybean bioactive peptides and their roles in the modulation of physiological functions or prevention of chronic diseases
Summary
Soybean (Glycine max) was cultivated in Asia for nearly 5000 years, first in China, in Japan. The United States is the leading soy producer and accounts for over 30% of the world’s production [3,4]. Epidemiological studies have associated soy consumption with potential benefits in reducing the risk for chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, insulin-resistance/type II diabetes, certain type of cancers, and immune disorders [3,5,6,8,9,10,11]. This paper summarizes the current knowledge about the soybean bioactive peptides and their roles in the modulation of physiological functions or prevention of chronic diseases
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