Nutritional and Antinutritional Factors in Underutilized Legumes: Occurrence, Nutritional Implications and Mitigation Strategies

Underutilized legumes offer significant opportunities to enhance global food and nutritional security under changing climatic conditions. These crops exhibit substantial potential due to their high protein content, valuable micronutrient composition and adaptability to marginal and low-input agricultural systems. However, their widespread utilization remains constrained by naturally occurring anti-nutritional compounds that interfere with nutrient absorption and, in some cases, pose health risks. This review synthesizes the current knowledge on the diversity, nutritional attributes, and anti-nutritional challenges of major underutilized legume species. This review examines the biochemical characteristics, distribution, and physiological effects of key anti-nutritional factors and their interactions with mineral bioavailability, protein digestibility, and metabolic responses. The effectiveness of pre-harvest interventions, household processing methods, industrial technologies, and emerging molecular and breeding approaches in mitigating anti-nutritional effects is critically evaluated in this review. Particular emphasis was placed on genotype environment interactions and their influence on nutrient antinutrient dynamics. This review identifies critical research gaps and future directions related to analytical standardization, large-scale validation, and human nutritional assessment. Overall, the findings underscore the need for integrated strategies that combine crop improvement, optimized processing, and nutritional evaluation to promote the safe utilization and commercial development of underutilized legumes in sustainable and nutrition-sensitive food systems.