A Comprehensive Review of Corn Protein‐derived Bioactive Peptides: Production, Characterization, Bioactivities, and Transport Pathways

Abstract

Bioactive peptides are specific peptide fragments that positively exert various functional and biological activities and ultimately influence health. Corn protein are potential precursor proteins for bioactive peptides. This review encompasses the studies reported to date on the production, isolation, purification, and characterization technologies of bioactive corn peptides (CPs), with particular attention being devoted to these peptides’ different health effects, including antioxidant, antihypertensive, hepatoprotective, alcohol‐metabolism‐facilitating, anti‐inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, and dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP‐IV) inhibitory activities. The review also describes studies examining the potential mechanisms believed to be involved in these bioactivities, and the possible absorption and transport pathways of CPs are summarized.

Evaluation of the in vitro and in vivo antihypertensive effect and antioxidant activity of blue corn hydrolysates derived from wet-milling//Evaluación del efecto antihipertensivo in vitro e in vivo y actividad antioxidante del hidrolizado de maíz azul derivado de la molienda húmeda

“…It is essential to mention that several conditions contribute to the composition and functional activities of bioactive peptides. Such as enzyme specificity, degree of hydrolysis, enzyme/substrate ratio, hydrolysis time, and amino acid sequence (Zhu et al, 2019).…”

“…The increasing prevalence in hypertension and risk factors, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease, have recently received considerable attention. Nowadays, interest in using bioactive ingredients is the cornerstone of hypertension prevention (Patten et al, 2016;Li et al, 2019;Zhu et al, 2019). Blood pressure regulation, controlled by the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, is vital for preventing this disease.…”

“…These peptides are residues of 2 to 20 amino acids (smaller than 10 kDa) and are frequently encrypted in food proteins from which they can be released through hydrolysis by digestive (pepsin and trypsin), microbial, or plant (proteinases and peptidases) enzymes (Cian et al, 2015). Some reports suggest that different bioactive peptides in diverse food proteins have the potential to inhibit the ACE-I (Cai et al, 2015;Zhu et al, 2019). Similarly, Li et al (2019) reported that to date, 22 sequences of bioactive peptides have been identified from CGM, all of these could potentially be used in the treatment of hypertension and oxidative stress.…”

“…Traditionally, corn wet-milling is a process that separates the corn in high purity fractions called by-products, such as corn gluten meal (CGM), which contains the greatest percentage of protein (61 to 62%), consisting mainly of 65 % zeins and 30 % glutelins (Anderson and Lamsal, 2011;Zheng et al, 2015). Despite corn proteins are deficient in lysine, histidine, and tryptophan (essential amino acids), thus affecting their nutritional quality, their overall amino acid profile, could make corn proteins a source of bioactive peptides (Zhu et al, 2019).…”

Production and Characterization of Antioxidative Hydrolysates and Peptides from Corn Gluten Meal Using Papain, Ficin, and Bromelain

“…Chemical hydrolysis is conducted using chemical reagents (acid or alkaline), but the protein will be randomly hydrolyzed, leading to variation in peptide compositions from different batches [ 7 , 8 ]. Microbial fermentation is a promising method for the production of bioactive peptides, but it is less efficient [ 9 ]. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a predominate method to produce protein hydrolysates with high efficiency and low safety concerns [ 10 ].…”