**8. Conclusion**

Grain and seed are nutritious, healthy foods that raise the nutritional effectiveness of the malnourished majority in the developing parts of the world. They are crucially important as a poor man's meat to the vast majority who cannot afford livestock products. Grain and seed contain proteins and bioactive peptides, which are referred to as active biological regulators. These proteins and bioactive peptides possess specific functional components incorporated into food products for wholesome nutrition. Besides providing healthy nutrition, grain and seed-derived proteins and peptides have bioactive ingredients endowed with protection against various degenerative diseases, promoting health and therapeutic use. Peptide-rich protein hydrolysates and bioactive peptides provide a better alternative to synthetic pharmaceuticals to prevent and treat chronic illnesses affecting many [118]. The increasing awareness of biosafety products should encourage the commercial exploration of pharmaceutic potential in naturally-derived peptides targeted at improving human health. Furthermore, peptide-rich protein hydrolysates and bioactive peptides in grain and seeds can be developed into micro and nanocapsules for inclusion in foods.

**41**

**Author details**

Adeola Abiola Oso and Anofi Omotayo Ashafa\*

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: ashafaaot@ufs.ac.za

Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, Phuthaditjhaba, Republic of South Africa

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Nutritional Composition of Grain and Seed Proteins DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97878*

*Nutritional Composition of Grain and Seed Proteins DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97878*

*Grain and Seed Proteins Functionality*

inhibiting the ACE activity [117].

**8. Conclusion**

for inclusion in foods.

antimicrobial, antihypertensive, immunomodulatory, and antioxidative [103]. Bioactive peptides are fast evolving as the new generation of biologically active regulators used to treat various medical conditions and increase the quality of life [104]. Pumpkin seeds contain a wide range of bioactive compounds reported with antidiabetic, antibacterial, hypocholesterolemic, antioxidant, anticancer, antimutagenic, immunomodulatory, antihelmintic, and anti-bladder stone potentials [105, 106]. Soybean generates bioactive peptides reported to treat induced arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases in experimental animals [107–109]. Bioactive peptides from wheat gluten hydrolysate have been used to treat chemically-induced hepatitis in animal [110]. Rapeseed protein hydrolysate is also reported with anti-carcinogenic properties [111]. Wheat and barley exhibit the most incredible diversity and abundance of peptides with potential biological activity among the cereal proteins [112]. Also, wheat and rice have proteins with peptidic sequences showing anticancer activity. Oat derived peptides (lunasin) have been reported to have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerous properties [113]. African yam bean is reported as a source of phytochemicals and bioactive compounds, including flavonoids and phenolic acids [114]. These bioactive compounds in African yam bean have antioxidant effects and are effective prophylactic and therapeutic compounds against several diseases. The hydrolysates of Bambara groundnut protein isolates have been reported to exhibit potent antioxidant activities and food preservative and functional food properties [115]. The bioactive peptides of Bambara groundnut isolates were also found to inhibit renin and angiotensin-converting enzyme, two components known to be associated with hypertension [116]. Peptide mixture from flaxseed with high levels of branched-chain amino acids and low levels of aromatic amino acids have been reported with antioxidant properties by scavenging 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) and antihypertensive properties by

Grain and seed are nutritious, healthy foods that raise the nutritional effectiveness of the malnourished majority in the developing parts of the world. They are crucially important as a poor man's meat to the vast majority who cannot afford livestock products. Grain and seed contain proteins and bioactive peptides, which are referred to as active biological regulators. These proteins and bioactive peptides possess specific functional components incorporated into food products for wholesome nutrition. Besides providing healthy nutrition, grain and seed-derived proteins and peptides have bioactive ingredients endowed with protection against various degenerative diseases, promoting health and therapeutic use. Peptide-rich protein hydrolysates and bioactive peptides provide a better alternative to synthetic pharmaceuticals to prevent and treat chronic illnesses affecting many [118]. The increasing awareness of biosafety products should encourage the commercial exploration of pharmaceutic potential in naturally-derived peptides targeted at improving human health. Furthermore, peptide-rich protein hydrolysates and bioactive peptides in grain and seeds can be developed into micro and nanocapsules

**40**
