The present review gives a survey of recent developments and applications of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with $N_f=2$ and $N_f=3$ quark flavors for the structure of baryons. The model is an effective chiral quark theory which incorporates the SU(N$_f$)$_Lotimes$SU(N$_f$)$_Rotimes$U(1)$_V$ approximate symmetry of Quantum chromodynamics. The approach describes the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and dynamical quark mass generation. Mesons appear as quark-antiquark excitations and baryons arise as non-topological solitons with three valence quarks and a polarized Dirac sea. For the evaluation of the baryon properties the present review concentrates on the non-linear Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with quark and Goldstone degrees of freedom which is identical to the Chiral quark soliton model obtained from the instanton liquid model of the QCD vacuum. In this non-linear model, a wide variety of observables of baryons of the octet and decuplet is considered. These include, in particular, electromagnetic, axial, pseudoscalar and pion nucleon form factors and the related static properties like magnetic moments, radii and coupling constants of the nucleon as well as the mass splittings and electromagnetic form factors of hyperons. Predictions are given for the strange form factors, the scalar form factor and the tensor charge of the nucleon.
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