Potential health benefits and food applications of rice bran protein: research advances and challenges

The climate changes, soil fertility decline, water scarcity, and desertification are expected to generate a great threat to crop production and food security worldwide. Additionally, more food is needed to meet the demand of the world’s growing population. Therefore, scientists are searching for innovative strategies to reduce food loss and enhance food security. Utilization of food processing by-products as food or food ingredients is one of the proposed strategies that can contribute to food security. Rice is a major food crop worldwide and there is a great amount of rice bran is produced as a byproduct of rice milling. Bran constitutes about 10% of the rough rice grain and it is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds. Rice bran protein (RBP) has shown good nutritional and biological values. Therefore, many studies have been carried out to investigate the suitability of RBP for the application in preparing nutritional and healthy foods. Also, hydrolysates and peptides with various biological activities were isolated from RBP and identified. Therefore, this article aimed to review the research advances in extraction, potential health benefits, and food applications of RBP and its derived hydrolysates. Challenges facing the application of RBP in the food industry are also discussed.