Peanuts and Their Nutritional Aspects—A Review

TLDR

Peanuts, a legume of the Fabaceae family, are widely consumed in various forms and are a rich source of calories, nutrients, minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins essential for human health. This paper reviews peanut composition and discusses how peanut consumption influences human metabolism and physiology, highlighting its role as an essential dietary component. The authors analyze peanut constituent biomolecules and their biological functions, examining the relationship between peanut consumption and human metabolic and physiological effects.

Abstract

Peanut is a legume crop that belongs to the family of Fabaceae, genus Arachis, and botanically named as Arachis hypogaea. Peanuts are consumed in many forms such as boiled peanuts, peanut oil, peanut butter, roasted peanuts, and added peanut meal in snack food, energy bars and candies. Peanuts are considered as a vital source of nutrients. Nutrition plays an important role in growth and energy gain of living organisms. Peanuts are rich in calories and contain many nutrients, minerals, antioxidants, and vitamins that are essential for optimum health. All these biomolecules are essential for pumping vital nutrients into the human body for sustaining normal health. This paper presents an overview of the peanut composition in terms of the constituent biomolecules, and their biological functions. This paper also discusses about the relationship between consumption of peanuts and their effect on human metabolism and physiology. It highlights the usefulness of considering peanuts as an essential component in human diet considering its nutritional values.