The role of food crops within the Poaceae and Fabaceae families as nutritional plants

Abstract

Abstract Plants play an important role in human life because they are the only organisms that can convert light energy from the sun into food. Products produced from plants such as fruits, vegetables, cereals, essential oils and many others are rich in carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and fibre that are necessary for health maintenance. They are an integral part of our regular diet because they are all of the food that people eat. Plants are arranged in a hierarchical classification that is called Taxonomy, and any given organism can be classified throughout the hierarchy. Such an arrangement allows related organisms to be classified. There are various taxonomic levels and each level is given a name (e.g., kingdom, division (phylum), class, order, family, genus, species). For example, the taxonomic class of monocotyledonous involves different families, but in this article, only the families of Poaceae (formerly called Gramineae) and Fabaceae (also called Leguminosae) are considered. Some of the major crops of these families that yield highly nutritious edible seeds or grains are known as cereals and legumes respectively. Legumes include common beans, peas, soybean, peanut and lentils while the most important crops of cereals are wheat, rice, corn, barley and rye. Their products account for a large part of the energy, carbohydrate and protein of the daily diet of every person in the world. Consequently, they play a fundamental role in the food security in the UK, as well as food security globally.