Bioactive components of ovine and caprine cheese whey

El pdf del artículo es la versión pre-print.Cheese whey, also known as sweet whey, is a by-product of cheese-making that contains many valuable constituents. Among them, whey proteins stand out for their high nutritional value in terms of biological value and composition in essential amino acids. In recent years, the increasing demand for caprine and ovine cheeses has produced important amounts of whey from these species, boosting research on the biological activities of its constituent proteins. Different bioactivities have been associated to these proteins, among them antihypertensive, antimicrobial, opioid, antioxidant and immunomodulant activity being the most studied. Although biological activities are present in the intact proteins, in many cases whey proteins act as precursors of bioactive peptides that are released from the hydrolysis of these proteins with different enzymes. This review presents an overview of the different biological activities described for caprine and ovine cheese whey proteins as well as for other whey components such as lactose, oligosaccharides or minerals. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.This work has received financial support from projects AGL2007-65035, AGL2008-01713, Consolider Ingenio 2010 FUN-C-Food CSD2007-00063 and P2009/AGR-1469. B.H.-L. thanks CSIC for her post-doctoral research contract.Peer Reviewe