Abstract

The aim of this review was to provide information on the nutritional components of legumes that can improve human wellbeing. Legumes are nutrient dense food crops with numerous health benefits. They have the ability to withstand harsh weather and naturally enrich soil, thus, reducing fertilizing cost. However, despite the advantages of legumes over other crops, they have not been fully utilized in food systems especially in developing countries. This review explores the nutritional profile of different types of legumes, factors influencing legume utilization and, the health benefits of legumes. Thus, providing vital information required to enhance industrial and domestic usage of legumes with a goal to promote legume cultivation for sustainable food production and improved healthy living.

Keywords:

Amino acid composition, fatty acid composition, hard-to-cook phenomenon, health benefits, processing, production,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.