Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA): a comprehensive review of dietary sources, enrichment technologies, processing effects, health benefits, and its applications

Abstract

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a naturally occurring potential bioactive compound present in plants, microorganisms, animals, and humans. Especially, as a main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, GABA possesses a broad spectrum of promising bioactivities. Thus, functional foods enriched with GABA have been widely sought after by consumers. However, the GABA levels in natural foods are usually low, which cannot meet people’s demand for health effects. With the increasing public awareness on the food securities and naturally occurring processes, using enrichment technologies to elevate the GABA contents in foods instead of exogenous addition can enhance the acceptability of health-conscious consumers. Herein, this review provides a comprehensive insight on the dietary sources, enrichment technologies, processing effects of GABA, and its applications in food industry. Furthermore, the various health benefits of GABA-enriched foods, mainly including neuroprotection, anti-insomnia, anti-depression, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetes, and anti-inflammatory are also summarized. The main challenges for future research on GABA are related to exploring high GABA producing strains, enhancing the stability of GABA during storage, and developing emerging enrichment technologies without affecting food quality and other active ingredients. A better understanding of GABA may introduce new windows for its application in developing functional foods.

Keywords:

• Enrichment technologies
• GABA
• GABA-enriched diets
• health benefits

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1600604), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32201940), China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA-Food Legumes (CARS-08-G19), Discipline construction - Food Science and Engineering (SPKX-202203), Tibet Key Research and Development Program (XZ202201ZD0001N), Research Foundation for Youth Scholars of Beijing Technology and Business University (QNJJ2022-18).