Underutilized green leafy vegetables: frontier in fortified food development and nutrition

From the ancient period, Green leafy vegetables (GLV) are part of the daily diet and were believed to have several health beneficial properties. Later it has been proved that GLV has outstanding nutritional value and can be used for medicinal benefits. GLV is particularly rich in minerals like iron, calcium, and zinc. These are also rich in vitamins like beta carotene, vitamin E, K, B and vitamin C. In addition, some anti-nutritional elements in GLV can be reduced if it is grown properly and processed properly before consumption. Tropical countries have a wide variety of these green plants such as Red Spinach, Amaranth, Malabar Spinach, Taro Leaf, Fenugreek leaf, Bengal Gram Leaves, Radish Leaves, Mustard Leaves, and many more. This review focuses on listing this wide range of GLVs (in total 54 underutilized GLVs) and their compositions in a comparative manner. GLV also possesses medicinal activities due to its rich bioactive and nutritional potential. Different processing techniques may alter the nutritional and bioactive potential of the GLVs significantly. The GLVs have been considered a food fortification agent, though not explored widely. All of these findings suggest that increasing GLV consumption could provide nutritional requirements necessary for proper growth as well as adequate protection against diseases caused by malnutrition.