On January 15th, Nongshim (Nongshim Co., Ltd. www.nongshim.com) announced it would launch first ‘black soybean peptide(BSP)’ in Korea. BSP is the final result of Nongshim’s twenty-year research on soy peptide which has recently earned certification from the Ministry of food and drug safety (MFDS) on effect in reducing body fat, blood pressure and blood sugar. ‘Peptide’ is amino acid combination extracted from protein, and especially soy protein is vegetable containing amino acid and bioactive substance of good quality.
Nongshim developed Korea’s first BSP, liquefied bioactive peptide extracted from domestic small beans, also known as ‘Seomoktae’ in Korean. A bottle of BSP (30ml) made by Nongshim contains 4.5g peptide, equivalent to two hundred small beans
In particular, Nongshim was officially certified by MFDS on its BSP effect in reducing body fat, blood pressure and blood sugar in December, 2013 through years of animal and clinical tests.
According to research from Professor Lee Jong-ho at the Department of Food and Nutrition of Yonsei University, compared to the control group, those who have drunk a bottle of BSP a day for twelve weeks without any other change in their daily life showed reduction in body fat by 0.77kg, blood pressure by 10mmHg from 147 mmHg to 137 mmHg and blood sugar by 17mg/dL from 205 mg/dL to 188 mg/dL.
“Small beans have been known as medicinal soy beans,” an official from Nongshim said, “If you consistently take in BSP extracted from them, you can have the effect in preventing metabolic syndromes of modern people such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.”
Nongshim’s development of health functional food dates back to 1996, when it found the function of soy peptide while researching the functionality of soy, the main ingredient of soybean paste and began to research in earnest about soy peptide with Seoul National University, Kyunghee University and Korea Food Research Institute.
In the meantime, Nongshim succeed in separating hypotensive peptide from soy paste and developed the peptide which has anticancer, antihypertensive and antithrombotic effects. Since then, Nongshim had focused on black beans (small beans) to succeed in developing peptide highly effective in adjusting body fat, blood pressure and blood sugar. In this period, Nongshim acquired at least seven patents.
Nongshim has plans to apply its R&D edge in developing food using functional materials and expand its business. With its history of launching a soy peptide product, Nongshim is going to develop various new products in which the functionality of black bean peptide was applied.
“BSP is the fruit of Nongshim’s twenty years of research and development technology in soy peptide based on the Korean traditional food material. We hope that our philosophy in pursuit of macrobiotic food is helpful to the health of customers,” the official said.
※ Note ; Soy Peptide
Soy peptide is referred as peptide earned by degradation of enzyme in vegetable protein extracted from soy beans. Soy peptide has effects in preventing high blood pressure and artery hardening by lessening blood cholesterol. It is also known to be effective in controlling appestat and thereby losing weights. Nongshim is the first in conducting the peptide research. Meanwhile, peptide is also extracted from rice, sardines and milk as well as soy beans, and it is widely used in various food and cosmetics.
By Lee Jae-seung
