COW MILK CASEIN COMPLEX (Bos taurus) PROTEINS AS PRECURSORS OF BIOACTIVE PEPTIDES

The data on composition and classification of bovine casein complex proteins have been reviewed. Caseins meet the classical requirements of food proteins in terms of composition and digestibility, they are also known as precursors of multiple bioactive peptides that enable to consider them as food prohormones. The phenomena of partial resistance of casein peptides to digestive proteases, their limited but proven ability to be absorbed in the intestine, cross into the bloodstream and performing the biologic action are discussed. In this paper, the results show the formation of bioactive casein peptides in fermented dairy products under the action of milk clotting enzymes and lactic acid microorganisms are reviewed. The authors present their own results on the formation of antihypertensive casein peptides from αS1 and β-caseins. The phenomenon of the breakdown of food proteins to bioactive peptides expands not only the knowledge on biological value of caseins but more widely the term of biological value of food proteins by itself.