Abstract

A REVIEW ON CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS AND PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITY POSSESSED BY ALLIUM CEPA

Gagandeep Kaur*, Jyotsana Sharma, Lovepreet Singh, Satnam Singh, Vinay Kumar

ABSTRACT

Onion (Allium cepa) is an important vegetable traditionally used as a food ingredient in the Mediterranean diet that has a high production, domestic, and foreign trade worldwide. It is consumed raw, cooked or processed into different onion products in the daily diet. Onion added into different foods makes these products rich in bioactive compounds with potential beneficial health effects. Evidence from several investigations suggests that these biological and medical functions are mainly due to the high content in organosulphur compounds content of onion. Along with organo-sulphur compounds, organo-selenium compounds, flavonols (quercetin and its glucosides) and dietary fibre (fructans and fructooligosaccharides) have been also related to the onion biological properties. Moreover, recently, it has been demonstrated that additional onion constituents such as saponins and peptides have potentially beneficial health effects, including antifungal, antitumor, antispasmodic and cholesterol-lowering activities and capacity to inhibit in vitro the development and activity of osteoclasts.

Keywords: Onion, health, beneficial effects