A review on metabolites and pharmaceutical potential of food legume crop mung bean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek)

Abstract

Mung bean or moong or green gram, an important grain legume, is cultivated mainly in Asian countries and other parts of the world as a food crop. It is a highly nutritious grain legume with a high content of easily digestible proteins (20–32%), carbohydrates (53.3–67.1%), lipids (0.71–1.85%), vitamins, minerals, and fiber. It also contains some antinutrients such as tannins, phytic acid, hemagglutinin, polyphenols, and trypsin inhibitors in low concentrations. The sprouting of seeds leads to dynamic changes in metabolites with a decrease in antinutrient content and an increase in the nutritional value. In addition to these nutrients and antinutrients, the plant also contains various other phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, glycosides, and bioactive peptides, which exhibit an array of pharmaceutically important properties such as anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antidiabetic, lipid metabolism regulation, antihypertensive, antiallergic, and antitumor. Being rich in nutritional value and other phytochemical components, the plant can be explored further for its pharmaceutical properties and used as an efficient food additive in the preparation of different types of dietary supplements or food-derived drugs.