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Review
. 2022 Aug 9;10(8):1606.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10081606.

Fermented Soy Products and Their Potential Health Benefits: A Review

Fernanda Guilherme do Prado  1 , Maria Giovana Binder Pagnoncelli  2 , Gilberto Vinícius de Melo Pereira  1 , Susan Grace Karp  1 , Carlos Ricardo Soccol  1
Affiliations
Review

Fermented Soy Products and Their Potential Health Benefits: A Review

Fernanda Guilherme do Prado et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

In the growing search for therapeutic strategies, there is an interest in foods containing natural antioxidants and other bioactive compounds capable of preventing or reversing pathogenic processes associated with metabolic disease. Fermentation has been used as a potent way of improving the properties of soybean and their components. Microbial metabolism is responsible for producing the β-glucosidase enzyme that converts glycosidic isoflavones into aglycones with higher biological activity in fermented soy products, in addition to several end-metabolites associated with human health development, including peptides, phenolic acids, fatty acids, vitamins, flavonoids, minerals, and organic acids. Thus, several products have emerged from soybean fermentation by fungi, bacteria, or a combination of both. This review covers the key biological characteristics of soy and fermented soy products, including natto, miso, tofu, douchi, sufu, cheonggukjang, doenjang, kanjang, meju, tempeh, thua-nao, kinema, hawaijar, and tungrymbai. The inclusion of these foods in the diet has been associated with the reduction of chronic diseases, with potential anticancer, anti-obesity, antidiabetic, anticholesterol, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. These biological activities and the recently studied potential of fermented soybean molecules against SARS-CoV-2 are discussed. Finally, a patent landscape is presented to provide the state-of-the-art of the transfer of knowledge from the scientific sphere to the industrial application.

Keywords: bioactive compounds; daidzein; fermented soybean foods; genistein; oxidative stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Production, productiveness, and total planted area in hectares of soybean in 2019/2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Soybean production and export of largest producers and estimate for imports in the 119 2020/2021 harvest.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Products fermented soy in Asian countries.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Number of registered patents for the compounds of interest (a), countries (b), and years (c) of publications.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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