Inductively coupled plasma analysis of soybean Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI) indicated that BBI was a metalloprotein which contained magnesium, calcium, and zinc at 0.40, 0.43 and 0.008 atom/mol BBI, respectively. Heparin-enhanced gelatin zymography, quenched fluorescence substrate hydrolysis analysis, and the Biotrak assay of the interaction of BBI with the matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) demonstrated that demineralized BBI at 30 nM inhibited MMP-1 activity whereas mineralized BBI was inhibitory at 115 nM.