The objective of this study was to screen and identify alpha-amylase inhibitor peptides from Pinto bean. Five Pinto bean bioactive peptides were successfully identified: PPHMLP (P1), PLPWGAGF (P3), PPHMGGP (P6), PLPLHMLP (P7) and LSSLEMGSLGALFVCM (P9). Based on ELISA results, their promising optical density values were 1.27; 3.71, 1.67, 3.20 and 1.03, respectively, which indicated the binding interaction between the peptide and alpha-amylase occurred. The highest inhibitory activity (66.72%) of the chemically synthesized peptide was shown in SyP9 followed by SyP1 (48.86%), SyP3 (31.17%), SyP7 (27.88%) and SyP6 (23.96%). The IC50 values were 1.97, 8.96, 14.63, 18.45 and 20.56 mg ml(-1), respectively. Structure activity relationship study revealed that alpha-amylase was inhibited due to its residues of Ala230, Asp229, Asp326, Tyr54, Met195, Leu194 and His233 were bound. On the other hand, the residues of PBBP (i.e. histidine, proline and methionine) were found to have the highest potency in the binding interaction. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.