Harvesting bioactive peptides from sustainable protein sources: Unveiling technological and functional properties through in silico analyses

Bioactive peptides, usually characterized by short amino acid sequences, are functional components obtained from precursor proteins by enzymatic, chemical, or other processing conditions. These peptides are known to have a wide range of effects on human health. In particular, protein-rich foods have been identified as natural sources of bioactive peptides. Furthermore, industrial by-products or wastes from various food processes have the potential to be a source of bioactive peptides. In this context, it is important to isolate proteins from food wastes, hydrolyze proteins to obtain peptides, determine the resulting peptide sequences, and characterize both functional and technological properties. Additionally, computational in silico analyses offer innovative and practical approaches for determining the properties of the peptides, offering significant time savings. This paper aims to present information on the extraction of bioactive peptides from sustainable protein sources, the identification of peptide sequences, and the determination of functional and technological properties of peptides by current in silico analyses.