Underutilized legumes of India: a potential food resource for the future

Food security is a serious concern nowadays; as the population increases, food demand also increases. Legumes are one of the major food crops worldwide that people utilize. Legumes such as beans and lentils are cultivated as well as promoted on a large scale. Apart from utilized legumes, there are other ones known as underutilized legumes. Underutilized legumes have the potential to be a source of supplementary foods. Many underutilized legumes are edible with rich nutritional benefits like high protein, carbohydrate and fibre, minerals, vitamins, fatty acids, etc. In India, varieties of legumes are present and used by different local peoples across the country, but most of them still need to be explored. Hence, this review discusses India's underutilized legumes and their traditional, pharmaceutical, phytochemical, nutritional, and edible properties. A few legumes are cultivated in different states and utilized regionally. Furthermore, based on regional importance, nutritional contents, edible status, and pharmaceutical application, we highlighted six underutilized legumes that could be promising supplementary food in the future. Factors that are hampering underutilized legumes are also highlighted.