How Does Rye Compare to other Cereals? A Comprehensive Review of its Potential Nutritional Value and Better Opportunities for its Processing as a Food-Based Cereal

ABSTRACT

Rye (Secale cereal L.) is a cereal crop, cultivated typically under drastic environmental conditions unlike other cereals, for example wheat and rice. Rye is considered as an important source of starch, protein, minerals, and vitamins i.e., tocopherols. Rye is rich in fibres (arabinoxylan, β-glucan, cellulose, lignin, and fructan) that helps sustain a healthy body weight and to reduce incidence of diabetes, cardiac problems, and cancer. Phytonutrients reported in rye include phenolic acids, alk(en)ylresorcinol, phytosterols, and benzoxazinoids to mediate for a myriad of its health effects. Such chemical makeup in Secale cereal poses it as one of the important cereals in European countries. This review aims to provide a comprehensive comparative overview of rye composition to other major cereals, its by-products, nutritional importance, and prebiotic activity. Further, the processing methods employed to enhance the sensory characters as well as nutritive value were mentioned with proposals to maximize rye value as a potential cereal crop.

KEYWORDS:

• Rye (Secale cereale)
• dietary fibres
• prebiotic effects
• benzoxazinoids, processing
• healthy food

Acknowledgments

Dr. M. A. Farag thanks the Alexander von Humboldt-foundation, Germany for continuous support.

NS: not specified

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing interests.