Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed protein was hydrolyzed with different proteases, and the optimal protease was screened based on the hydrolysis degree and iron-chelating ability of hydrolysates, then iron-chelating peptides were prepared by the optimal protease. Single factor method and response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken design using four factors and three levels were carried out to optimize the conditions of Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed iron-chelating peptide, and the effects, including substrate concentration, enzyme/substrate ratio, hydrolysis pH, temperature, time on iron-chelating ability of hydrolysate were studied. The results indicated alcalase proteases was the optimal protease to prepare iron-chelating peptides from Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed protein. The optimal hydrolysis conditions were as followed: the substrate concentration 27.70 mg/mL, enzyme concentration 0.09 mg/mL, pH 10.47, hydrolysis temperature 65 ℃ and time 2.5 h. Based on this condition, the hydrolysate performed higher iron-chelating ability and degree of hydrolysis, which were 585.66 mg EDTA/g·Protein and 7.23% respectively.