Functional significance of bioactive peptides derived from soybean

•This paper summarizes the current scenario on bioactive peptides, especially those derived from soybean.•Topics include production of bioactive peptide, especially through enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation.•We discuss about the mechanism of action of bioactive peptides, particularly those related to cardiovascular diseases.•Topics also include isolation, purification and characterization of bioactive peptides through several new technologies such as MALDI, ESI/MS, etc.•Topics also include biofuctional activities of bioactive peptides derived from soybean such as antihypertensive, antioxidative, anticancer, antiobesity and immunomodulatory.

Biologically active peptides play an important role in metabolic regulation and modulation. Several studies have shown that during gastrointestinal digestion, food processing and microbial proteolysis of various animals and plant proteins, small peptides can be released which possess biofunctional properties. These peptides are to prove potential health-enhancing nutraceutical for food and pharmaceutical applications. The beneficial health effects of bioactive peptides may be several like antihypertensive, antioxidative, antiobesity, immunomodulatory, antidiabetic, hypocholesterolemic and anticancer. Soybeans, one of the most abundant plant sources of dietary protein, contain 36–56% of protein. Recent studies showed that soy milk, an aqueous extract of soybean, and its fermented product have great biological properties and are a good source of bioactive peptides. This review focuses on bioactive peptides derived from soybean; we illustrate their production and biofunctional attributes.