Trailing the Prospects of Leguminous Microgreens as Rising Functional and Future Foods
摘要
Microgreens are considered as a new class of functional foods and are known for their nutritional values. These are tiny seedlings with a pair of cotyledonous leaves and a delicate stem developed from the seeds of legumes, spices, vegetables, cereals and herbs. Microgreens are reported to carry numerous phytochemicals like β-carotene, flavonoids, chlorophyll, vitamins and minerals. A plethora of bioactive components are also present in microgreens including, phenols, glucosinolates, flavonoids, carotenoids and others. The nutritional proficiency of microgreens has made it a superfood for human health promotions owing to its anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Among a diverse range of microgreen varieties, the leguminous microgreens are comparatively the least studied ones so far. This chapter is basically based on leguminous microgreens covering almost all the aspects of legumes right from the growth conditions, nutritional characterization, therapeutic potential and commercial prospects. An effort is made to popularize the augmentation of leguminous microgreens in the main stream of human diet along with other microgreens for year around availability of superfood to ensure better health.