Nutritive content of lentil

Abstract

Lentil (Lens culinaris) is a very important nutritious crop, grown, consumed throughout the world due to its high macro and micronutrients contents, including all the minerals. The nutritive components of lentil have several beneficial influences on human health. The current review aims to highlight the present knowledge on the mineral, amino acid, lipids, vitamins and carbohydrate composition of lentils. Thereby, a literature search was conducted using reliable sources: Elsevier, Research gate, Springer, etc to understand the overall nutritive status of lentils. The proximate composition of lentils is similar when compared with other legumes but the seed contains low concentrations of fat, fiber. Lentils supply a reasonably balanced range of all minerals. Lentils contain a number of anti-nutritive factors and these may be controlled either by processing or possibly by plant breeding programs. Anti-nutritive factors are less important In human diets because of cooking and processing which normally occur prior to eating, Lentils have a potential as a protein concentrate and could be processed to produce many products similar to those produced from soya beans. Lentils should be used for a variety of purposes, mainly towards eliminating malnutrition, on the condition of being well-balanced. Lentils should be incorporated either in snacks or while preparing household, school, or hospital meals, particularly in developing countries.