Waste generated from the agro-food industry represents a concerning environmental, social and economic issue. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines food waste as all food that decreases in quantity or quality to the extent that it is thrown out by food service providers and consumers. The FAO reports that 17% of worldwide food production may be wasted. Food waste may include fresh products, food close to the expiration date discarded by retailers and food products from household kitchens and eating establishments. However, food waste offers different possibilities to extract functional ingredients from different sources, such as dairy, cereals, fruits, vegetables, fibers, oils, dye and bioactive compounds. The optimization of agro-food waste as an ingredient will help in the development and innovation of food products to generate functional food and beverages to prevent and treat several diseases in consumers.

There are two types of milk whey obtained from cheese manufacture: sweet and acid. It retains around 55% of the nutrients of the milk. Milk whey is considered as a waste, creating a critical pollution problem, because 9 L of whey are produced from every 10 L of milk. Some treatments such as hydrolysis by chemical, fermentation process, enzymatic action, and green technologies (ultrasound and thermal treatment) are successful in obtaining peptides from protein whey. Milk whey peptides possess excellent functional properties such as antihypertensive, antiviral, anticancer, immunity, and antioxidant, with benefits in the cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, immune, and nervous system. This review presents an update of the applications of milk whey hydrolysates as a high value-added peptide based on their functional properties.

En la actualidad, las enfermedades cardiovasculares, principalmente hipertensión, ocupan el primer lugar en las causas de muerte en México y el mundo. A pesar de que la enfermedad puede ser controlada con farmacos, estos deben ser tomados de por vida y muchas veces se presentan efectos secundarios. Por lo que la medicina natural, alimentos funcionales y nutracéuticos representan una excelente opción para prevenir y controlar de la enfermedad, ya que muchos compuestos bioactivos presentes en estos actúan como agentes antihipertensivos. El objetivo de esta investigación es mostrar información existente sobre compuestos bioactivos de fuentes naturales que han mostrado acción antihipertensiva tanto en pruebas in vitro como in vivo, para dilucidar áreas de investigación que permitan profundizar más en este tema. Se realizó una búsqueda exhaustiva en bases de datos como Redalyc, EBSCO, Scielo, PubMed, Medigraphic, Elsevier, Dialnet y Latindex, sobre estadísticas de padecimiento de la hipertensión arterial, así como fisiopatología de la enfermedad y pruebas experimentales sobre el efecto antihipertensivo de compuestos bioactivos de origen natural. Se reportan, mayormente, trabajos de investigación que demuestran la eficiencia de péptidos bioactivos, compuestos fenólicos y saponinas, se evidencia que estos actúan a través de la inhibición de la enzima convertidora de angiotensina (ECA).