Minor millets: an underutilized super crop for combating malnutrition and ensure food security

Malnutrition is an emerging concern in the context of rising population and increasing food demand. Together with malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency is yet another problem faced globally. Under weight, anemia, stunting are some of the most prevalent forms of malnutrition commonly observed in economically weaker sections of the society. To address these issues, millets can be suitable option over conventional cereal crops. Millets are coarse cereals belonging to family Poaceae. Millets are excellent source of nutrients with negligible amount of saturated fats. These are also loaded with bioactive constituents including polyphenol, phenolic acid, flavonoids, phytic acid, phytosterols and carotenoids. These bioactive constituents are responsible for antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, cancer preventing and prebiotic properties of millets. Millets are also gluten free in nature. Because of its nutritive value, millets are often referred as nutricereals. Millets can be categorized into 2 groups into major and minor millets. Minor millets have the potential to grow with the minimum resources under abiotic stress. It fulfills every criteria be considered as a potential alternative for combating malnutrition and ensure food security. Despite of all these, minor millets are underutilized and very less research have been conducted on it. This review mainly highlights the current scenario, nutritional and functional properties, processing of millets with the main focus on minor millets.