A narrative review on nutritional and health benefits of underutilized summer crop to address agriculture challenges: Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia L.)

A reasonable plant‐based protein supply needs to be found in order to fight protein undernourishment, especially in developing nations. One of the most prominent and underutilized members of the Fabaceae family, moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia L.), has outstanding nutritional and bioactive components. Moth bean is a tropical crop and has ability to grow well at arid and semiarid areas. In addition to vitamins, minerals, lipids, fatty acid, and carbohydrate, moth bean seeds also provide an abundant protein source. Furthermore, the antioxidant and phenolic content of moth bean seeds is also high. If consumed on a regular basis, moth bean legume possesses countless beneficial effect on health and immune system, including the ability to prevent obesity, diabetes, and cardiac diseases in humans. This review focuses on the uses, improved varieties, adaptive constrain, nutritional bioavailability, and health benefits of V. aconitifolia seeds.

appears to be a multipurpose legume crop that can be used to produce green manure, food, fodder, and feed (Figure 1).It is a reasonable source of supplementation for protein deficiency (Brink et al., 2006).
Plants are main source of our food which contains numerous known nutritious compounds but, it is believed that some compounds are still unknown.Moth bean is a well-recognized and identified source of various bioactive phytoconstituents such as phenol, flavonoids, glycosides, and so forth with antidiabetic, antineoplastic, antimicrobial, antihypertensive, and antioxidant properties, as well as macronutrient and micronutrient (Roy et al., 2010).
Moth bean seeds are appreciated for their high carbohydrates and protein content, as well as adequate amounts of amino acids, minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc), vitamins, and unsaturated fatty acids (Edeoga & Gomina, 2000).The phytochemicals have a significant potential to reduce bacterial pathogenicity as they inhibit quorum sensing pathway in bacteria (Truchado et al., 2015).
Evaluation of plant phytochemicals becomes essential in this situation.
This unexploited plant, with its plethora of minerals, vitamins, and nutrients, plays a crucial role in food security and acts as an essential and leading protein source for the deprived communities of economically underdeveloped countries.This underutilized crop previously received very little scientific attention, but now it is the subject of advanced research.Along with food security, this legume crop is used for the identification of new bioactive compounds to provide health benefits and cure various maladies in animals and humans.Moth bean has many physiological and health benefits, including the prevention of sarcoma, heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes (Krupa, 2008).
A current study describes the importance of various phytoconstituents, minerals, and vitamins present in Vigna aconitifolia for human health and their role in the substantial reduction of chronically degenerative diseases.

| ORIGIN OF MOTH BEAN
According to Jain and Mehra (1980), V. aconitifolia is a native crop of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and India.Vavilov (1926) claims that V. aconitifolia originated in India, both the wild and cultivated varieties.
Additionally, it is grown in South-Western States of the United States, China, Malaysia, Africa, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar (Kochhar, 2016).In dry and semiarid areas, especially in the West, moth bean is largely farmed.Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan are the main states that grow moth beans.Rajasthan, India's driest state, contributes mainly in moth production at the national level (Viswanatha et al., 2016).Vigna genus and Ceratotropis Verdc.subgenus.This increased the total number of species included in genus Vigna.Later, Marechal (1978) presented a monograph following Vedcourt and suggested some nomenclatural changes for Phaseolus-Vigna complex.According to these changes, Phaseolus aconitifolius (Jacq.)became Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.)Marechal, which is generally accepted now.The precursor of moth bean is thought to be Phaseolus trilobata (L.) (syn.Phaseolus trilobus), which is a wild and endemic species in India, both are diploid and have 2n=22 chromosome number.

| PLANT PHENOLOGY
Different genotypes of V. aconitifolia considerably vary in their morphology (Figure 2).Generally, plants with short internodes and densely packed branches grow up to 150 cm tall, with small white deflexed hairs found on both stems and branches.Plant bearing trifoliated leaflets vary in their shape and size and are more or less deeply lobed.The inflorescence is an axillary raceme with a 5-6 cm long peduncle (Brink et al., 2006).Papilionaceous bisexual flowers with a campanulated 4-5 mm long calyx and a yellowish corolla are 5-5.5 mm long.Ten stamens are arranged in a diadelphous manner, with nine united and one free.The ovary is superior, sessile, c. 4mm long with incurved style.Fruits are pods with size ranges from 2.5 to 5 cm x 0.5 cm, have a curved beak, covered with short and stiff hairs.The pod color is pale grey and brown and has six to eight seeds.The seeds are rectangular to cylinderical, 3-5 mm x 1.5 mm in size, whitish green to yellowish brown in color, linear and white hilum.

| CYTOGENETICS
Chromosomal investigations aid in detecting genetic relatedness or distances among distinct genomes, which is important for understanding the origin, categorization, and evolution of any taxon (Kumar & Rao, 2002;Stace, 2000).Moth bean is reported to be a diploid genome (2n = 22) (Yundaeng et al., 2019), and 224 of k-mer-based analysis puts the genome size at about 380 Mb.Due to the extremely small (1.6-3.7 m) size of the Vigna chromosome, it contains little information when compared to other legumes (She et al., 2015).Low crossability has been recorded for the genus Vigna, and interspecies crossability is scarce (Aremu et al., 2016).The interspecific crossing barriers that prevent the full utilization of the genetic resources found in the wild relatives of moth beans can be made easier using cytogenetic information.

| CLIMATE AND SOIL
V. aconitifolia grows well in dry and semiarid environments because it can survive high temperatures without adversely affecting fruiting or flowering.Temperatures of 25 C to 37 C and 250-500 mm of rainfall are the ideal ranges for growth.Although, the crop thrives in a variety of soil types, it prefers a sandy loam soil with good drainage.Moth beans are cultivated in India in light-textured, depleted soils with little organic content, including sand dunes.

| PRODUCTION
As compared to other beans and legumes, the moth bean needs less precaution and attention (Marathe et al., 2011).By using advanced agricultural techniques, we can increase productivity while tackling issues like food security, malnutrition, climate change, and protein deficiency.V. aconitifolia cultivation in India is expected to cover approximately 1.5 million hectares of land and produce 0.4 million tons annually (Bhadkaria et al., 2020;Senthilkumar & Ngadi, 2020).
Moth bean is a well-established profitable crop in India.Rajasthan has 85% of the total area and 55% of the total production of the F I G U R E 2 Variability in the shape, size, and color of different varieties of Vigna aconitifolia seeds.country (Om & Singh, 2015).Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab are the other states where moth bean is grown on marginal lands.Moth beans can easily grow in less fertile soil and dry conditions without any irrigation facilities, with a very low average yield in a range of 70-270 kg ha À1 .As per reports, India is one of the major producers of beans and produces nearly 6.12 million tons of beans including moth beans, which is higher than other major producing countries such as Brazil, China, and the United States (Figures 3 and 4).In Australia and the United States, new hybrid varieties of moth beans are used by growers, with average yields of approximately 2600 kg ha À1 (Harouna et al., 2018).This recommends that the yield of moth beans be enhanced by producing new biotic and abiotic stress-resistant seed varieties through advanced breeding practices.

| NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION
For poor vegetarians in arid and semiarid regions, moth beans represent a substantial source of protein and dietary carbohydrates.In comparison to other legumes, moth beans are thought to be better at digesting carbohydrates and have considerably fewer non-digestible carbohydrates (37.1%).The protein content in moth beans ranges from 20% to 23%.Lysine (5.77%) and tryptophan (3.23%), two important amino acids that are low in cereals, are relatively abundant in moth bean protein, which has an amino-acid profile similar to that of cereals (Sathe & Venkatachalam, 2007).Moth bean is acknowledged as a suitable source of energy, protein, and carbohydrates for human consumption.The superiority of moth beans for human consumption has been supported by a few studies on comprehensive chemical analysis (Singh et al., 2014).Analysis of 25 different moth bean accessions revealed relationships between seed storage proteins including globulin and albumin and phytochemicals like tannins, saponins, phytic acid, protease inhibitors, and antioxidant activity.Individual protein fractions were discovered using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-GE), with the largest protein spots falling within the PI range of 6-8 (Gupta et al., 2016).A comparison of the nutritional profile of moth bean with that of other pulses is shown in Table 1 based

| TRADITIONAL USES AS A FOOD AND ITS BYPRODUCTS AS ANIMAL FEED
The ripe seeds of Vigna aconitifolia are consumed whole or divided, fried or cooked.In India, boiled and sprouted seeds are favored for breakfast; nevertheless, fried and split seeds are typically consumed in prepared foods like namkeen.To make multigrain and more nutrientrich bread, the seeds are combined with other cereal grain flour.
Unripe pods are cooked and served as vegetables.Either green manure or animal feed is made from this crop.This crop has huge potential for providing high-quality fodder in hot, arid, and semiarid environments.Moth bean fields have been planted for this purpose in Texas, India, and California because they make outstanding pastures.
Green forage yield of moth beans is more than 60 tonnes/hectare.Its feeding value is approximately the same as that of hay made from   Likewise, hydration and swelling capacity accounted for 0.04 g and 0.04 mL/seed, respectively.The hydration and swelling indexes were 1.00 and 0.39, respectively.

| PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
The pharmacological and disease-curing benefit of moth bean is shown in Figure 6.Traditionally moth bean seed is used in the healing of cough, obesity, liver ailments, paralysis, rheumatism fever, and liver ailments.Soaked seed soup is mainly used to treat coughs, bronchitis, and fever in rural areas.It is significant to treat women who have irregular menstrual cycles.Moth bean roots are narcotic in nature.It is also crucial to treat various renal ailments due to its astringent, diuretic, and tonic properties.Moth bean proteins promote the formation of high-density cholesterol proteins while suppressing lowdensity cholesterol, which leads to hypocholesterolemia (Saravanan & Ignacimuthu, 2015).

| Antioxidants
Plant secondary metabolites with a hydroxyl group and an aromatic ring, such as constituents of phenol and flavonoids, are powerful antioxidants.These antioxidant properties provide various health benefits for prevention and curing diseases.These secondary metabolites also play a prominent role in food quality, nutritional status, and common defense mechanism of plant.Tannin interaction with hydroxyl radical further enhances the antioxidant properties V. aconitifolia.Fresh seeds of moth bean possessed larger amount of tannins (0.13-2.89 g 100 g À1 ) and total phenolics (0.05-1.46 g 100 g À1 ) (Bhadkaria et al., 2022).During food processing few of them inactivate, but not all, cell wall become soften and facilitate the abstraction of various bioactive compounds.Detected seeds sprouting enhances phenolic content by 28% and decreasing oxidative stress in different cell lines.
Antioxidants and different bioactive phytochemicals found in moth bean seeds can be used to treat numerous human diseases (Panicker & Hamdule, 2021).Moth bean seed extracts have a wide range of antioxidant and inhibitory activities against pancreatic lipase (IC50 = 7.32 to 9.85 mg/mL) and glucosidase (IC50 = 50.42mg/mL) (Swanson, 2003).Caffeic, cinnamic, and ferulic acids and kaempferol are found in moth bean sprouts and help to reduce free radicals.Moth bean trypsin inhibitor inhibits lymphoma MBL2 cell proliferation (Ramya & Thaakur, 2007).Additionally, moth bean seeds have therapeutic benefits for treating Parkinson's disease (Ma et al., 2010).

| Neurodegenerative diseases
Few very common factors promote and are the main driving factors for several neurodegenerative disorders.Medically, a main typical character of these diseases is the aggregation and storage of misfolded proteins, as with α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease, amyloid-β (Aβ) in Alzheimer's disease, huntingtin protein in Huntington's disease (HD), and so forth.The most significant agents for curing these neurodegenerative disorders and other several infectious diseases are protease inhibitors.Although, research in this direction is in progress and limited literature is available on it.Earlier, the health benefits of protease inhibitors was studied by Xu and Chang (2007).
There is significant concentration of phenol and flavonoid compounds present in moth bean seeds, which have been linked to the control of a variety of chronic health conditions, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and anti-hypertensive effects.Moth bean contains some persuasive nutraceuticals that benefit human health.To improve pharmacological and therapeutic potential, functional meals are produced by mixing moth bean-based protein with other cereal grains (Bhadkaria et al., 2021).Benevides et al. (2018) claim that bioactive components of Vigna species have the potential to treat a number of ailments.

| USE AND PROCESSING OF MOTH BEAN
Vigna aconitifolia is a popular poor man's food, mainly in developing countries.The young green pods and seeds of the moth bean are consumed by humans, while the leaves and stalks are consumed by animals.Dehusked seeds, whole seeds, and sprouts are the most popular and normally used forms used as foodstuffs.Usually, whole seed sprouts are consumed as a curry/vegetable due to their high mineral and vitamin content.Few traditional Indian dishes made with moth bean flour are bhujia, mangori, papad, roti, rabri, vada, kheech, and sandge (Srivastava, 2023).
Modified moth bean-based starch film was used in food packaging to maintain the freshness and shelf life of food products, such as lemons, which increased the shelf life by up to 12 days (Kumar et al., 2019).Modified acetylated moth bean starch is used to prepare a hydrophobic inert matrix for the packaging of pharmaceutical products like tablets of lamivudine, which are used in the handling of Sprouting, soaking, and cooking of moth bean changes the various physiochemical characteristics of food, which is critical in the growth of gluten-free food products.Commonly, moth bean flour is used by celiac patients, which promotes high market demand for gluten-free product formation (Ali et al., 2022;Medhe et al., 2019).
The food quality and nutritional profile of edible legumes are further enhanced through common traditional food processing methods (Table 2).Dehulling, fermentation, enzyme treatments, soaking, and germination are the main processing measures employed to enhance organoleptic properties and drop anti-nutritive components.Moth beans are pre-soaked for approximately 24 h before consumption.
This pre-soaking processing enhances bioavailability and the nutritional profile and might also help reduce antinutritional factors (Table 3) (Gautam et al., 2018).
It was observed that soaking seeds in plain and mixed mineral salt water for 12 h effectively reduces phytic acid by 46%-50% (Negi et al., 2000).Seed roasting is also helpful in depleting phytic levels and improving the bioavailability of iron and protein digestibility.Likewise, in vitro protein (IVPD) and starch digestibility (IVSD) were improved by 1%-8% and 19%-36%, respectively.After soaking, the total sugar and the tannin content of moth beans were significantly reduced (Singh et al., 2014).hydrogen cyanide, and crude fiber.However, along with this, gamma radiation treatment enhances the protein content, polyphenols, sugar level, IVPD, linoleic acid, amino acids, edible fiber, palmitoleic acid, and eicosenoic acid (Bhagyawant et al., 2018;Tresina et al., 2017).
Moth bean is a significant source of protein that can be used as follows: Bhujia: Moth bean seeds ground into fine flour mixed with different spices make a paste to make a noodle-like thread, which is lightly fried in oil.

Roti:
Roti is prepared by mixing moth bean flour with pearl millet flour.

Kheech:
It is commonly prepared by mixing moth bean sprouts with rice and pearl millets.It acts as a cooling agent and also has anti-acid properties.
T A B L E 3 Effect of various processing methods on antinutritional factors.

Mangori:
Overnight-soaked seeds of moth beans are crushed into paste, then spices like ginger, onion, and coriander are added.The thick paste was further cut into small pieces and sun-dried.
The mangori can be kept for several months and used as a vegetable substitute.

Vada:
Moth bean seed flour is mixed with spices to form a thick paste, which is fried in oil.It also helps recover from gastric disorders.

Papad:
Moth bean flour dough used for papad formation.Papad can be kept for years and eaten as a snack.The developments in our understanding of moth bean include, but are not limited to, the following points:

Rabri
• There may be testing of limited genotypes and a lack of comparative studies with other underutilized legumes, common features of nutritional, anti-nutritional compounds, processing characteristics, and health benefits from diverse species appear to be lacking.To obtain the technological advantage, future research on moth bean should focus these areas.
• Studies on the isolation, characterization, and utilization of different components such as starch and protein are limited.Also, the isolation methods should be species/variety-specific as some varieties might significantly differ in their starch, non-starch polysaccharides, and protein content.Standardization and scaling up of these methods should be conducted on a global scale.
• Food scientists and chemists should collaborate with plant biotechnologist to understand the ecotype variation and correct identification of the species which can help in research and sample collection in the field.
• Moth bean seeds contain up to over 40%-45% starch content on a dry weight basis.Extensive evaluation of genetic resources should be done for the production of zero and high amylose (>40%) genotypes which can be created by genetic means.Similarly, the influence of different agronomic practices can be evaluated to understand and diversify the variations in the structure, physicochemical, and functional properties of starches.
• Also, some novel processing techniques such as HHP, radiation treatments, ultrasonication, and so forth can be explored to obtain the moth bean seeds and its ingredients with broader range of properties.After treatment, these can be utilized as functional ingredients in the development of different food products such as bread, pancakes, noodles, cakes, muffins, and cookies.
Moth bean is a member of the Vigna genus and the Papilionoideae subfamily of the Fabaceae family.Previously, the Phaseolus genus F I G U R E 1 Moth bean plant, flower, pod, seeds, and seed sprouts.comprisedmoth bean or dew gram (Phaseolus aconitifolius Jacq.syn.V. aconitifolia [Jacq.]Marechal).Later, it was transferred to the genus Vigna of the Phaseolae tribe.Vigna and Phaseolus, together form a very elaborated taxonomic group called the Phaseolus-Vigna complex.In 1970, Verdcourt advocated that the genus Phaseolus be confined to exclusively include only those American species that have a tightly coiled style and pollen grains without course reticulation, thereby significanlty promoting the concept of Vigna.During taxonomic amendments in Phaseolus Linn.and Vigna Savi, yellow-colored flower species under the subgenus Ceratotropis Piper were transferred to the on information from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Chemical Composition of Moth Bean.
Medicago sativa.F I G U R E 3 Chart showing the production of beans in million tons in few major countries from 1961 to 2021.Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.T A B L E 1 Nutritional composition of moth bean and other common pulses.

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I G U R E 4 Map showing the production of beans in million tons in world in 2021.Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.10 | PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIESMany earlier studies examined the chemical, functional, and physical characteristics of V. aconitifolia.Chemical analysis revealed that raw moth bean flour has an oddly higher content of ash (3.47 g), moisture (3.38 g), crude dietary fiber (0.38 g), protein (23.63 g), and fat (0.38 g) than cooked and germinated moth bean flour(Medhe et al., 2019) (Figure5).Seeds have also been shown to contain a modest quantity of tannins as well as several antinutritional elements such as saponin (2833-3349 mg/100 g DW basis), phytic acid (852-899 mg/100 g DW basis), trypsin inhibitor activity (1676-2719 units/10 g), and others.Phytic acid is greatly reduced after moth bean seeds are soaked in a salt solution.Leaching was further slowed down by 60 h sprouting and pressure heating of presoaked seed in a saline solution(Khokhar & Chauhan, 1986).Soaking seeds in a salt solution lowers their saponin concentration by 30%-36%.Sprouting, possibly through diffusion, lowers the saponin concentration by 56%-66%.Additionally, soaking seeds in a salt solution eliminates 30%-36% of the saponins from the seeds.Similarly, by soaking seeds in a salt solution and pressure boiling the sprouts, trypsin inhibitory activity can be controlled.Some important components of functional properties are oil and water absorption, emulsifying properties, foaming capacity, gelation concentration, and water solubility index(Badami & Kasturiba, 2018).The oil absorption ability of moth bean seeds ranged from 1.13 to 1.47 g g À1 , and water absorption capacity ranged from 1.23 to 3.77 g g À1 .Moth bean whole seeds had emulsifying stability of nearly 41.25%, while flour had emulsion properties of 57%.The foaming capacity of whole seeds is 35.66%.Moth bean flour had the tiniest gelation concentration, ranging from 14% to 18%, and the water solubility index ranged from 7.95% to 27.89%(Kamani et al., 2020).Physical properties involve various seed characters such as length, breadth, volume, 100-seed weight, and grain density.Seed length extended from 3.69 to 3.99 mm, breadth ranged from 2.20 to 2.40 mm, seed volume reached up to 1.26 to 3.0 mL, and 100-seed weight fluctuated between 1.61 and 3.89 g(Bhokre & Joshi, 2015).
Some unsafe agents, like tissue injury and allergens, stimulate a defense mechanism known as inflammation; in some cases, an uncontrolled inflammatory response is the chief reason for several illnesses, including cancer, cardiovascular dysfunctions, allergies, autoimmune disorders, and metabolic syndrome.Therefore, there is a need to use natural anti-inflammatory factors to attain augmented pharmacological.Roy et al. (2010) studied the effect of trypsin inhibitors in decreasing the occurrence of certain cancers and the potent anti-inflammatory properties of V. aconitifolia seeds.Different F I G U R E 5 Phytochemicals found in Vigna aconitifolia.varieties of moth beans possessed significant variations in trypsin inhibitory properties as postulated byGupta et al. (2016).The trypsin inhibitor activity was found in Jwala (0.078 TIU/mg) cultivar whereas the lowest concentration was found in I.C. #39756 is 0.041 TIU/mg.

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I G U R E 6 Pharmaceutical effect of moth bean on human body.T A B L E 2 Effect of different processing methods on nutrients availability of moth bean.syndrome (AIDS) and hepatitis B (HBV).
Chavan et al. (2018) used sprouted and dried moth bean grains to make probiotic drinks with cardamom, sugar, and Lactobacillus acidophilus.Gamma radiation treatment of moth bean seeds further reduces antinutrient factors such as L-DOPA, trypsin inhibitors, phytohemagglutinin (PHA), :A thick paste of moth bean and pearl millet flours mixed in buttermilk is kept under sunlight for 4-5 h.Then it was heated to boiling and kept overnight to increase digestive capabilities.It is used as a conditioning agent and sedative in arid climates.Rabri soothes stomach acidity and helps release gas from the system.Sprouting:Seeds are soaked overnight in water; the sprout is consumed directly or after roasting with spices.Sprouting decreases flatulence and antinutritional factors due to their metabolization during germination.This process also increases the ascorbic acid content.13| ADOPTION CONSTRAINTSThis crop is utilized for grain and pasture in arid areas and has a substantial amount of nutrients.But after then, farmers have a poor rate of crop adoption because of issues with low-yield varieties, production, economics, and spread of technologies, policies, and marketing.Most of the farmers continue to use low-yielding old varieties; approximately 2% of farmers are using improved new varieties.The fruiting time of moth bean overlaps with heavy rainfall, resulting in poor seed set.Substantial researches are needed to develop new improved moth bean varieties with new strains.The economic status of the farmer also plays an important role in the rejection and adoption of advanced technology.Commonly, lowland farmers in arid regions cultivate moth beans and limit their access to manure, fertilizers, and improved varieties.Moth bean cultivation also needs sound knowledge of the predominant environmental conditions and management techniques.Jat et al. (2011) reported that, mainly, farmers are unaware of weather conditions and production technologies due to poor technology distribution by government agencies.This crop is also underutilized due to some marketing constraints.There is no proper remuneration or cooperative marketing facilities for moth bean, resulting in farmers choosing other crops.Therefore, the improvement of government policies such as regular water and electricity supply and marketing facilities may inspire farmers to adopt this crop in wider areas.14 | RESEARCH TRENDS The agricultural industry is aware of how the environment affects crop productivity, so it is important to spread knowledge about Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices to increase productivity and lessen the effects of climate change.Moth bean is an important crop in these difficult settings and has the potential to replace other major legume crops since it has adapted to desert and hot agro-climatic conditions.The last two decades have seen a boom in moth bean research, which now includes germplasm collection to test, characterize, and assess the acquired accessions for high yields, heat tolerance, and drought avoidance and tolerance.Studies are also being conducted to determine accessions that are tolerant of pest and disease attacks and resistant to them, as well as to assess the moth bean's chemical makeup, nutritional profile, and functional characteristics in various products and byproducts.Additionally, in order to promote moth bean as a prospective significant legume crop, strong marketing techniques may be necessary in addition to creative value-added farming practices.Finally, moth beans are a hopeful climate-smart legume crop for sustained food and nutritional security across the globe when these issues are resolved because they are nutrient-dense and environmentally resilient.15| CONCLUSIONMoth beans are rich in dietary fiber, nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical components, and vitamins and have a low glycemic index, but it is still an underutilized legume.This crop has the potential to combat malnutrition, protein deficiency, and food security while also provide a wide range of plant-based bioactive compounds and phytochemicals.The health benefits of eating moth beans have drawn the attention of researchers, and their production is increasing globally.Along with cereals, it provides all of the necessary and balanced nutrition for celiac patients and is used in the formulation of gluten-free products.Innumerable bioactive phytocompounds, including lectins, enzyme inhibitors, phenolic compounds, and oligosaccharides, have been reported in moth bean, which play a major metabolic role in human health.Apart from the nutrients, moth beans also contain several antinutritional factors including saponins, phytic acids etc. which can be effectively reduced by different processing techniques.Considering the importance of this valuable legume crop which is still underutilized, collaborative efforts of breeders, plant geneticists and agronomists to develop new traits can be helpful in its commercial utilization.