An update on nutritional profile, phytochemical compounds, health benefits, and potential applications in the food industry of pulses seed coats: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Pulses, as a sustainable source of nutrients, are an important choice for human diets, but vast quantities of seed coats generated in pulses processing are usually discarded or used as low-value ruminant feed. It has been demonstrated that pulses seed coats are excellent sources of dietary nutrients and phytochemicals with potential health benefits. With growing interest in the sustainable use of resources and the circular economy, utilization of pulses seed coats to recover these valuable components is a core objective for their valorization and an important step toward agricultural sustainability. This review comprehensively provides a comprehensive insight on the nutritional and phytochemical profiles presented in pulses seed coats and their health benefits obtained from the findings of in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, in the food industry, pulses seed coats can be acted as potential food ingredients with nutritional, antioxidant and antimicrobial characteristics or as the matrix or active components of films for food packaging and edible coatings. A better understanding of pulses seed coats may provide a reference for increasing the overall added value and realizing the pulses’ sustainable diets.

Keywords:

• Sustainable diet
• pulses seed coats
• phytochemicals
• health benefits
• food industry

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1600604), China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA-Food Legumes (CARS-08-G19), Discipline construction—Food Science and Engineering (SPKX-202203), Research Foundation for Youth Scholars of Beijing Technology and Business University (QNJJ2022-18).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for financially sponsored by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1600604), China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA-Food Legumes (CARS-08-G19), Discipline construction - Food Science and Engineering (SPKX-202203), Research Foundation for Youth Scholars of Beijing Technology and Business University (QNJJ2022-18).