Although soy products have been used for more than 1 000 years, they have only become popular in the Western world a few decades ago. Nato is one of the traditional Japanese dishes made from fermented soybeans and is similar to soft cheese. Nato extracts are rich in the enzyme nattokinase, which is produced during fermentation by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. This serine protease enzyme was obtained from the beginning and its fibrin (a protein involved in blood clotting) degradation properties were evaluated by a team of scientists at the University of Chicago Medical School, led by Japanese-born scientist Hiroyuki Sumi. Since then, for several decades, nattokinase has remained a promising object of research.
Although soy products have been used for more than 1 000 years, they have only become popular in the Western world a few decades ago. Nato is one of the traditional Japanese dishes made from fermented soybeans and is similar to soft cheese. Nato extracts are rich in the enzyme nattokinase, which is produced during fermentation by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. This serine protease enzyme was obtained from the beginning and its fibrin (a protein involved in blood clotting) degradation properties were evaluated by a team of scientists at the University of Chicago Medical School, led by Japanese-born scientist Hiroyuki Sumi. Since then, for several decades, nattokinase has remained a promising object of research.