The implications of chiral symmetry breaking and SU(3) symmetry breaking have
been studied in the chiral constituent quark model (χCQM). The role of
hidden strangeness component has been investigated for the scalar matrix
elements of the nucleon with an emphasis on the meson-nucleon sigma terms. The
χCQM is able to give a qualitative and quantitative description of the
"quark sea" generation through chiral symmetry breaking. The significant
contribution of the strangeness is consistent with the recent available
experimental observations.Comment: 10 pages, 1 table. To appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.