Abstract
Prosopis is a regional cash crop that is widely grown in arid, semiarid, tropical, and subtropical areas. Compared with other legume plants, Prosopis is underutilized and has great potentialities. Prosopis not only is a good source of timber, construction, fencing material, and gum, but also can be applied for food, beverage, feed, and medicine. Prosopis contains numerous phytochemical constituents, including carbohydrates, proteins, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins, while varieties of phenolic compounds have also been identified from different parts of Prosopis. Flavonoids (especially C-glycosyl flavonoids), tannins, catechin, 4′-O-methyl-gallocatechin, mesquitol, and quercetin O-glycosides are significant phenolic contents in Prosopis. Various extracts of Prosopis displayed a wide range of biological properties, such as antioxidant, antihyperglycemic, antibacterial, anthelmintic, antitumor, and anticancer. Additionally, Prosopis has the potential to be an ideal diet that contains abundant dietary fiber, minerals, galactomannans, and low-fat content. However, the bioactivity and pharmacological properties associated with Prosopis were influenced by the bioavailability of phytochemicals, various antinutritional compounds, and the interactions of protein and phenolic compounds. The bioavailability of Prosopis is mainly affected by phenolic contents, especially catechin. The antinutritional compounds negatively affect the nutritional qualities of Prosopis, which can be prevented by heating. The protein-phenolic compound interactions can help the human body to absorb quercetin from Prosopis. This literature review aimed to provide systematic information on the physical, biochemical, pharmacological, and nutritional properties and potential applications of Prosopis.
Highlights
Prosopis (Prosopis spp.) is an underutilized legume plant that belongs to the Leguminosae family and Mimosaceae subfamily [1]
By comparing with standard antibiotics, ethyl ether and alcoholic extracts can inhibit the growth of S. aureus (0.80 and 0.74 I/ Ca, respectively), E. coli (0.97 and 0.89 I/Ca, respectively), and C. albicans (0.62 and 0.86 I/ma, respectively), where I means inhibition zone, a means ratio of diameters of the inhibition zone to extracts (10 μg) under observation (I) and diameter of inhibition zone due to standard reference antibiotics, C means chloramphenicol (30 μg) against S. aureus in 30 mm and E. coli in 32 mm, and m means Mycostatin (100 units) against C. albicans in 32 mm [71]
Prosopis can be used as food, beverages, firewood, timber, livestock feed, vegetable, construction and fencing material, medicine, and shade. e chemical constituent of Prosopis includes macronutrients, polyphenolic compounds, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, fiber, carotenoids, and ascorbic acid
Summary
Prosopis (Prosopis spp.) is an underutilized legume plant that belongs to the Leguminosae family and Mimosaceae subfamily [1]. Forty species of Prosopis come from North and South America, three are native to Asia, and the other one is from Africa [3]. In South America, Argentina has the most varied Prosopis, with 29 species of 14 endemic taxa [4]. Prosopis does not need to be grown annually, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine while it can be grown with other crop species, such as millet crop in India [6]. E pods of Prosopis cineraria consist of about 70% of the pericarp and 30% of the seeds, while the seeds are brown in color and ovate in shape [8]. E Prosopis flour has brown color and sweet flavor, with a similar aroma to coffee, cocoa, coconut, or caramel [10]. As all the parts of the tree are useful, Prosopis is called kalpataru in India, which means the “wonder tree” and the “king of the desert” [11]
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