EN
Bowman-Birk inhibitors (BBI) are small serine proteinase inhibitors found in the leguminous and gramineous plants. Characteristically, their molecular masses are in the range of 6-9 kDa and are rich in disulfide bonds. The name of this family comes from the names of workers who first isolated (Bowman, 1940) and characterized (Birk, 1961) this inhibitor from soybean. Soybean BBI is the best known inhibitor of this family and it is often called ‘classical BBI’. The Bowman-Birk inhibitor is recognized as a potential cancer chemopreventive agent for humans. Human populations consuming large amounts of BBI in their diet have been demonstrated to exhibit lower rates of colon, breast, prostate and skin cancers.