Recent advances in research on Allium plants: functional ingredients, physiological activities, and applications in agricultural and food sciences

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables (FVs) have long been a major source of nutrients and dietary phytochemicals with outstanding physiological properties that are essential for protecting humans from chronic diseases. Moreover, the growing demand of consumers for nutritious and healthy foods is greatly promoting the increased intake of FVs. Allium (Alliaceae) is a perennial bulb plant genus of the Liliaceae family. They are customarily utilized as vegetable, medicinal, and ornamental plants and have an important role in agriculture, aquaculture, and the pharmaceutical industry. Allium plants produce abundant secondary metabolites, such as organosulfur compounds, flavonoids, phenols, saponins, alkaloids, and polysaccharides. Accordingly, Allium plants possess a variety of nutritional, biological, and health-promoting properties, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, antitumor, immunoregulatory, antidiabetic, and anti-inflammatory effects. This review aims to highlight the advances in the research on the bioactive components, physiological activities and clinical trials, toxicological assessment for safety, and applications of different Allium plants. It also aims to cover the direction of future research on the Allium genus. This review is expected to provide theoretical reference for the comprehensive development and utilization of Allium plants in the fields of functional foods, medicine, and cosmetics.

Keywords:

• Allium genus
• phytochemicals
• biological activity
• application

Disclosure statement

All authors of this study declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671812), and the program from Institute of Science and Technology Innovation, DGUT (KCYCXPT2017007).

Notes on contributors

Jing-Kun Yan

Jing-Kun Yan: Conceptualization, Writing-original draft, and Writing-review & editing;

Jie Zhu

Jie Zhu: Formal analysis, Software, and Visualization;

Yujia Liu

Yujia Liu: Data curation, Software, and Validation;

Xu Chen

Xu Chen: Investigation, Methodology;

Wenhan Wang

Wenhan Wang: Data curation, and Methodology;

Henan Zhang

Henan Zhang: Investigation, and Writing-original draft;

Lin Li

Lin Li: Supervision.