Poster Presentation The 16th Australian Peptide Conference 2025

Natural Peptides from Rhizomes - A Platform for Nutraceutical Innovation (#219)

Kruttika Purohit 1 2 , Fabien Plisson 1 3 , Mitchell Low 4 , Evan Hayes 5 , Anwar Sunna 1 2
  1. School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Facilitated Advancement of Australia's Bioactives (FAAB), Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. Ingenie Bio, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  4. NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  5. Factors Group Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Chronic inflammation is a key underlying factor in a wide spectrum of diseases, including metabolic syndromes, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune conditions [1]. While conventional therapies often target downstream inflammatory responses, there is growing interest in food-derived bioactive peptides as natural, safer modulators of inflammation. This work focuses on the discovery and characterisation of anti-inflammatory peptides from edible rhizomes - specifically ginger, sweet potato, purple carrot, and red radish. These plants have been widely consumed across cultures and are known in traditional medicine systems for their health benefits [2, 3]. However, they remain largely untapped as sources of therapeutic peptides [2].

Proteins are extracted from these rhizomes and subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis using various food-grade bacterial proteases - alone, in combination, or as part of enzyme cocktails - to maximise peptide yield and diversity [4, 5]. The resulting peptides are then screened using existing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven prediction models that assess bioactivity based on quantitative structure–activity and property relationships (QSAR/QSPR). These models help prioritise promising candidates for downstream in vitro evaluation, including macrophage-based nitric oxide inhibition assays and multiplex cytokine profiling.

Future work will integrate deep mutational scanning to design and assess optimised peptide variants with enhanced target affinity, potency, and stability. This multidisciplinary approach - spanning food science, peptidomics, bioinformatics, and computational biology - aims to accelerate the identification of functional peptides while reducing experimental burden. By bridging traditional plant-based knowledge with modern AI-driven peptide science, this research contributes to the development of sustainable, naturally derived therapeutic agents. It also highlights the potential of edible rhizomes as an underexplored source of health-promoting compounds, offering a new avenue for dietary interventions and peptide-based solutions for chronic inflammatory diseases.

  1. Furman, D., et al., Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nature Medicine, 2019. 25(12): p. 1822-1832.
  2. Zhu, M., et al., Preparation, bioactivities, and food industry applications of tuber and tuberous roots peptides: A review. Food Chemistry, 2024. 456: p. 140027.
  3. Ibrahim, M.A., et al., Tuber Storage Proteins as Potential Precursors of Bioactive Peptides: An In Silico Analysis. International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics, 2019. 25(2): p. 437-446.
  4. Dau, T., G. Bartolomucci, and J. Rappsilber, Proteomics Using Protease Alternatives to Trypsin Benefits from Sequential Digestion with Trypsin. Analytical Chemistry, 2020. 92(14): p. 9523-9527.
  5. Giansanti, P., et al., Six alternative proteases for mass spectrometry–based proteomics beyond trypsin. Nature Protocols, 2016. 11(5): p. 993-1006.