Biodiversity-Driven Functional Food Innovation: Harnessing Underexplored Native Crops for Human Health

Abstract

Highly vulnerable to climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition, and supply chain disruptions, global food systems rely on a few staple crops. Underexplored native crops such as minor millets, native legumes, pseudocereals, traditional leafy vegetables, roots and tubers, oilseeds and fruits with climate resilience are valuable raw materials for developing sustainable functional foods. The current review discusses the potential of crop biodiversity in functional food innovation and its impact on human health. Native crops are rich in a variety of high-quality proteins, complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre, resistant starch, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, carotenoids, phytosterols, bioactive peptides, and other specialized phytochemicals. These constituents can have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, cardioprotective, lipid-regulatory, immunomodulatory, neuroprotective, and gut-microbiome-modulatory effects. Their biological activity is, however, genotype-dependent, culture media-dependent, dependent on maturity, processing, interactions with food matrix, bioaccessibility, and individual host factors.
The nutritional quality, sensory acceptability, stability, safety and bioavailability are expected to be enhanced by conventional and emerging technologies, such as germination, fermentation, extrusion, high-pressure processing, ultrasound-assisted extraction, freeze drying and microencapsulation. Several factors remain to be addressed to expand the use of commercial translation, including limited compositional databases, inconsistent standardization, lack of clinical evidence, poor seed and processing systems, regulatory uncertainty, and low consumer awareness. Future innovations need to combine conservation and knowledge of crop varieties, standardized nutritional profiling, sustainable processing, clinical validation, health claims (with responsibility), equitable benefit sharing, and inclusive value chain development. Utilization of under-exploited local crops can diversify nutrition, increase food system resilience, boost rural livelihoods, preserve agrobiodiversity, and facilitate production of functional foods with proven benefits for eating habits and public health, which helps in the prevention of chronic diseases.