Marine Bioactive Peptides

Synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) may be harmful to human health. For this reason, natural antioxidants have attracted attention as an alternative. Recently, research on marine protein hydrolysates has shown that peptides extracted from marine organisms such as oyster, jumbo squid, cod, tuna, Alaska pollock, and microalgae show potential antioxidant activity. This is mainly due to the effectiveness of marine bioactive peptides in scavenging free radicals and reactive oxygen species or in preventing oxidative damage by interrupting the radical chain reaction of lipid peroxidation.

• Antimicrobial activity

It is known that inflammation involves a complex series of protective and reparative responses to tissue injury caused by either mechanical and autoimmune stimuli or infection. Recently, numerous anti-inflammatory compounds have been isolated from marine algae with potential protective efficacy against neuroinflammation. Among them, marine oligosaccharides influence cellular immunity, humoral immunity and inflammatory processes in autoimmune diseases in many ways and have reliable efficacy in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Hypertension is the cause of many cardiovascular diseases. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a key role in the regulation of cardiovascular physiology by converting angiotensin I to angiotensin II, a potent vasoconstrictor. Therefore, hypertension can be prevented by inhibiting the activity of ACE. Recently, many marine organisms have been found to have the potential to inhibit ACE, such as oyster, mussel, tuna frame, shrimp and krill. Among these, bioactive peptides derived from marine fish have been developed as antihypertensive ingredients in functional foods or nutritional products.