Wheatgrass: An Epitome of Nutritional Value

Abstract

Background: Plants having active constituents possess pharmaceutical use and nutritional values. Herbal medicine or food supplement is gaining popularity, as well as scientific research on wheatgrass as a “functional food”. Objective: The target behind accepting wheatgrass as a study for review is to have clinical and non-clinical investigations on the wheatgrass plant at an equivalent stage. To let individuals, think about different affirmed uses and activities of the plant. Methods: Plants having so many nutritional and therapeutic values have been selected for review so that consumers or patients could be benefitted from their therapeutic uses. Recently, the interests in the use of herbal products have grown dramatically in the western as well as developing countries. The review was extracted from searches performed on Google Scholars, Google Patents, etc. Data from sources have been collected and reported here at one place in order to provide further research on wheatgrass. Results : Wheatgrass is a high source of various vitamins and minerals; it possesses many activities like anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, anti-bacterial and many more. Wheatgrass’ uses, benefits and properties non-clinical data and clinical studies has been thoroughly studied. Patents filed related to wheatgrass are mentioned here, so as to motivate other innovators to search for new activities or molecules. Conclusions: Wheatgrass can be used in pharmaceutical formulations and can be used as nutritional supplements due to its anti-oxidant nature, anti-microbial activity, anti-bacterial activity, anti-fungal activity. It is also called “Panacea on Earth” owing to its wide range of nutritive and medicinal aspects.

Nutritional prospects of wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum) and its effects in treatment and chemoprevention

“…It also acts as an adjuvant therapy in hemolytic anemia and helps blood-building activity in thalassemia [14]. It is suggested to include wheatgrass in the daily diet (powder, tablet, juice [15,16], bread [17], or cookies) [18,19] as it contains chlorophyll, which is almost similar to haemoglobin and strengthens the body's immune system [1,20]. Wheatgrass is found to possess anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal activity, and according to the literature available, the plant is effective against the following organisms as tabulated in Table 1 below:…”

“…Anti-coagulant Vitamin K [1] Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory action Phenols, amylase Apigenin and quercetin (bioflavonoid) [1,7] Detoxification Chlorophyll [1] Anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory Luteolin (bioflavonoid) [1] Metabolism and digestion Cytochrome oxidase, choline, proteins, lipids, threonine [31][32][33][34] Anti-thalassemic Iron [35] Anti-cancer activity Superoxide dismutase, cytochrome oxidase [31] Anti-diabetic Fibers [36] Anti-aging effect Lysine [34] Regeneration of kidney and liver cells Methionine [34] Enhancement of men fertility Arginine [34]…”

“…Wheatgrass possesses plant hormones in huge quantities. When used after 4 h of cutting wheatgrass, abscisic acid can neutralise the effect of cancer-causing fragments [1,53]. Graphical representation of wheatgrass used in chemoprevention is shown in Figure 1.…”

“…Wheatgrass, the most edible crop, has been selected for this review due to the high amount of nutritional phytoactive ingredients, which may be beneficial for treating many diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, fungal infection, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, etc. Numerous bioactive substances are contained in wheatgrass (Triticum aestivum), including minerals, amino acids, vitamins A, B, C, E, and K [1,2]. This review aims to compile the nutritional prospects of wheatgrass (young wheat plantlets [3]) and its use in chemoprevention.…”