Peptides are short chain amino acids having low molecular weight usually
less than 20 kDa. Peptides having health beneficial biological activity are known as
bioactive peptides (BP). BP may be free or encrypted within the protein sequence and
encrypted peptides are active only when released from the parent protein. Enzymatic
hydrolysis and microbial fermentation are the most common methods for the
production of BP from the parent protein. BP have numerous beneficial biomedical
functions. They can act as antihypertensive, antioxidant, angiotensin converting
enzyme inhibitors, and antimicrobial agents. With the emergence of new infectious
diseases and multidrug resistant pathogenic bacterial strains, there is an urgent need for
the discovery of new antimicrobial agents having a broad spectrum of activity. In this
context, BP having antimicrobial activity (antimicrobial peptides) can be a potential
candidate for the development of new antimicrobial drugs. Antimicrobial peptides
(AMPs) have played an important role in the innate immune system of plants and
animals. Hence, various AMPs have been isolated from microbes, plants, and animals.
AMPs can directly or indirectly kill the pathogen and their mechanism of action is
different from conventional antibiotics. They also have immunomodulatory functions.
Moreover, AMPs have lower pathogen resistance as compared to conventional
antibiotics. These properties attract researchers and pharmaceutical industries toward
the development of AMPs as new anti-infective drugs against the multi-drug resistant
pathogens. The present chapter highlights the production and application of BP as well
as their potential use as antimicrobial drugs.
Keywords: Antimicrobial peptides, Bioactive peptides, Encrypted peptides,
Immunomodulatory, Multi-drug resistant.
