Indigenous Crops: Exploring Health Promoting Properties?

Mankind uses more than 6000 species for different purposes and out of these about 2000 plant species are edible. However, only a few plant species are consumed as part of daily-diet. During the last three decades, research related to health promoting bioactive compounds in fruits and vegetables has increased at a rapid rate but most of the research is limited to commonly consumed fruits and vegetables. This narrow repertoire of commonly used fruits and vegetables delimits the achievable health benefits to mankind. Interestingly, indigenous fruits and vegetables have tremendous medicinal and nutritional value, which remains to be explored. Currently, there are very few systemic attempts to enumerate the potential benefits of indigenous vegetables and fruits. Some of the indigenous crops have received fair amount of attention in recent times but many are still obscure. Several indigenous crops such as bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonolobus L.) and drumstick plant (Moringa oleifera L.) are being studied for their bioactive components and traditional knowledge about medicinal use is being substantiated. For example, bitter gourd has been shown to reduce the serum glucose and cholesterol levels in rats as well as induce apoptosis in colon cancer cells. Moreover, bitter gourd was found to be hypoglycemic in clinical trials. The activity may be due the presence of chrantin, vicine, momordicine (bitter substance) and polypeptide-P. Fenugreek, another important indigenous crop, found to be hypoglycemic in phase I clinical trials. It has 4-8% saponins (diosgenin) and about 1% alkaloids (trigonelline), contributing to bitterness, gastric stimulation, and increased appetite. Research during last decade has shown that diosgenin suppress proliferation and induce apoptosis in cells in human colon carcinoma cells. Moreover, a better understanding of the bioactive constituents of these crops is necessary by purifying and understanding the structure activity relationship. In order to determine the breadth of health benefits offered by these crops, it is imperative to investigate the indigenous crops for their bioactive components, and enumerate the health promoting properties of these obscure vegetables. Potential of some of the indigenous crops and their health promoting properties will be discussed.