Antihypertensive Peptides Derived From Food Sources

High blood pressure or hypertension is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases among human beings. A progressive rise in blood pressure can lead to haemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, cognitive decline and premature death. The past decade has seen a constant increase in prevalence of hypertension among populations because of changes in lifestyles and dietary patterns. Though pharmaceutics are available, the response to drugs shows variability and outright toxicity in some patients. With prolonged use, side effects of drug tend to manifest in the form of metabolic disorders like diabetes amongst patients. Since food sources have yielded bioactive peptides with antihypertensive properties, they have attracted attention of scientific community. Various methodologies like enzymatic hydrolysis, food fermentation and recombinant DNA technology has been explored for their production from various food sources such as dairy products, cereals, legumes, etc. The review contains an overview of possibilities of commercial exploitation of variety of food sources for production of antihypertensive peptides in functional food or therapeutic forms.