here - First Legume Society Conference (LSC1)

Book of Abstracts First Legume Society Conference 2013: A Legume Odyssey Novi Sad, Serbia, 9-11 May 2013
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Legume proteins and peptides as compounds in nutraceuticals: a structural basis for
dietary health effects
Marina Carbonaro
CRA-Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione, Rome, Italy
In recent years, legume proteins have been recognized to have a nutritional role far beyond that
providing amino acids for growth and mainteinance of body tissues. Not only small peptides, but
also partially digested proteins of different size and even intact proteins from several legume
seeds -soybean, lupin, lentil, chickpea, pea, common bean- have been found to play important
physiological, hormone-like effects. Anticarcinogenic, hypocholesterolemic, glucose-lowering,
antioxidant, antimicrobial, immunostimulant activities have been associated to enzymatic
inhibitors, lectins, 7S and 11S storage proteins, as well as to peptides deriving from them, notably
lunasin and hydrophobic peptides. Chance of modulating these effects through control of protein
structure is the challenge of future research. A deep understanding of how structural stability of
legume proteins impacts in vivo digestibility and release of bioactive sequences, with special
concern of structural modifications occurring during technological processing and
gastrointestinal digestion is required to improve nutraceutical potential of protein-rich plant
foods. Major current knowledge about relationship between structural properties, digestibility and
bioactivity of proteins in whole legume seeds will be presented here. Specific secondary structural
elements, as recently revealed by Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic studies, of
relevance for protein and peptide bioavailability in processed legumes, will be pointed out and
discussed.
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