In the initial phase of this doctoral dissertation the possibility to increase yield of alkali extracted protein from chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seed by pretreatment with different enzymes, that can depolymerize components the of the cell wall and degrade it, was examined. The effect of enzymatic pretreatment of material on functional and antioxidant properties of obtained protein isolates as important determinants of their application was also analyzed. In the second phase, albumin, globulin and glutelin fractions were subsequently extracted from chickpea seed and characterized in terms of their functional and antioxidant properties. The possibility of preparing protein nanostructures from chickpea protein isolates and fractions was explored in the third phase. Various processing conditions that led to the formation of protein nanostructures with beneficial characteristics were examined in terms of nanocarriers’ properties as well as their interactions with some bioactive compounds. Results showed that in alkaline process approximately two-thirds of the total protein was extracted from defatted chickpea seed. The application of individual arabinofuranosidase, and combination of cellulase and xylanase prior to alkaline extraction led to almost complete protein extraction from defatted chickpea; this represented improvement in extraction efficiency for more than 25% compared to alkaline extraction. When functional properties were analyzed, protein isolates from extractions assisted with combination of cellulases and xylanase as well as with individual arabinofuranosidase had higher solubility (93% and 86%, respectively), compared to alkaline isolate (83%). Furthermore, higher values of water and oil holding capacieties, enhanced emulsifying and foaming properties were obtained for these isolates. In addition to improving functional properties, pretreatments with arabinofuranosidase, and combination of cellulase and xylanase increased antioxidant activity of alkaline isolate by 70% and more than 100%, respectively.When comparing results obtained for the protein fractions, it was evident that globulin fraction had the highest solubility at the applied conditions (about 85%), while the lowest solubility (about 65%) was obtained for glutelin fraction. Water and oil holding capacities of the glutelin fraction were significantly higher compared to the capacities of the other two. The emulsifying activity of glutelin was significantly higher than that of albumin and globulin, while significantly higher results for emulsion stability were obtained for globulin and albumin fractions. The results of foam capacity and stability showed that the foaming properties of glutelin were higher compared to the properties of albumin and globulin fractions. Regarding biological activity, albumin and glutelin fractions expressed similar in vitro antioxidant activity while globulin fraction showed significantly lower result.As a result of varying duration and pH value of applied thermal treatment, protein (nano)particles of different sizes were obtained ranging from 28 nm to 290 nm for those prepared from protein isolates, and from 23 nm to 405 nm for (nano)structures prepared from protein fractions. Nanoparticles prepared from alkaline protein isolates extracted with the assistance of enzymes showed lower particle sizes and higher storage stability at higher investigated pH compared to nanoparticles prepared from protein isolate from alkaine extraction only. Additionally, nanoparticles from protein isolate obtained from extraction assisted with combination of cellulase and xylanase showed the highest in vitro antioxidant activity while nanoparticles prepared from isolate from extraction assisted with arabinofuranosidase showed superior binding capacity of linoleic acid. As for the nanoparticles from protein fractions, the smallest nanoparticles with highest storage stability were produced from glutelin fraction, at higher investigated pH. Nanoparticles prepared from albumin fraction showed higher linoleic acid binding capacity compared to nanoparticles prepared from other two fractions, while nanoparticles obtained from the glutelin and albumin fractions had the highest in vitro antioxidant activity.