Hempseed (Cannabis sativa) protein hydrolysates: A valuable source of bioactive peptides with pleiotropic health-promoting effects

Abstract

Background: Recently, the study of hydrolysates from food proteins has been increasingly due to their wide range of biological activities. Hydrolysates contain peptides of 2-20 amino acids that are inactive within the sequence of the parent protein, but, once released after proteolytic processes, they exert numerous beneficial health effects. Hemp, the non-drug variety of Cannabis sativa, is known as an important source of bioactive peptides due to the high quality of hempseeds protein (20-25%) and well-balanced amino acid profile. For this reason, during the last decade, numerous investigations have searched to elucidate the beneficial effects on the health of these hempseed protein hydrolysates. Scope and approach: The aim of this review was to collect all the scientific evidence on the demonstrated beneficial effects of hempseed protein hydrolysates (HHs). Key findings and conclusions: HHs have showed to possess antioxidant, immunomodulatory, hypotensive, hypo-glycemic, and lipid-lowering capacities in vitro systems. All these effects have pointed out HHs as future ingredient for the development of functional foods or dietary supplements useful for the prevention of chronic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes or hypertension. However, few studies have evaluated the in vivo effects of HHs. For this reason, further studies carried out in animal models or human are necessary to better exploit the use of HHs for the development of new dietary supplements.