Abstract

Soybean products (soyfoods), reported as potential functional foods, are implicated in several health-enhancing properties, such as easing the symptoms of postmenopausal women, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, preventing cardiovascular disease, and antimutagenic effects. Isoflavone, for example, is one of the most important compounds abundantly found in soybean, mainly accounting for the health-enhancing properties as mentioned earlier. However, most biological activities of isoflavones are mainly attributed to their aglycone forms. It has also been demonstrated that isoflavone aglycones are absorbed faster and in greater amount than their glycosides in human intestines. Fortunately, deglycosylation of isoflavones can be achieved during fermentation process by several strains such as lactic acid bacteria, basidiomycetes, filamentous fungus, and Bacillus subtilis with their β-glucosidase activity. This article presents an overview of soybean's chemistry, application, state-of-the-art advances in soybean fermentation processing and products as well as their applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. Different compounds, such as isoflavone, dietary fibers, and proteins which exhibit significant bioactivities, are summarized. The roles of different microorganisms in bioconversion and enhancement of bioactivities of fermented soybean are also discussed.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

Chen KI, Erh MH, Su NW, Liu WH, Chou CC, Cheng KC

Institution

Graduate Institute of Food Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan.

Source

Applied microbiology and biotechnology 96:1 2012 Oct pg 9-22

MeSH

Biotechnology
Biotransformation
Fermentation
Food Industry
Humans
Soybeans
Technology, Pharmaceutical

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22872103