Kale: Review on nutritional composition, bio-active compounds, anti-nutritional factors, health beneficial properties and value-added products

Abstract

There has been an increasing trend in recent times for taking more of green leafy vegetables (GLV) portion in the human diet. Among various GLVs available for human consumption, some are confined to a specific region and few are available in many parts of the world. Kale (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala) is among the latter group which belongs to Brassicaceae family. This review summarizes the nutritional composition and anti-nutritional factors of kale available in different parts of the world. Consideration was also given for summarization of the studies reported on health benefits, pharmacological activities and different food products. It is noted from the literature that kale is a good source of fiber and minerals like potassium with higher calcium bioavailability than that of milk. Kale also contains prebiotic carbohydrates, unsaturated fatty acids and different vitamins while the anti-nutritional factors such as oxalates, tannins and phytate are present in higher concentrations. Research studies are reported different health beneficial activities of the kale like protective role in coronary artery disease, Anti-inflammatory activity, Antigenotoxic ability, gastro protective activity, inhibition of the carcinogenic compounds formation, positive to gut microbes, anti-microbial against specific microorganisms. However, in case of value-added products kale was reported limited usage like, in baked products and beverages. Finally, concluded that, kale has good potential to use in different food and nutritional applications.