Pueraria: A Comprehensive Review of Chemical Composition, Health Benefits, and Current Applications

Pueraria as a legume vine is mainly produced in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Its most widely used part is the tuber. Pueraria is often used to treat various diseases such as fever and headache since ancient times. Recently, pueraria as a valuable source of polysaccharides, phytochemicals, proteins, minerals, and other nutrients has anticancer, immunomodulatory, hypoglycemic, lipid-lowering, antiatherosclerotic, neuroprotective, hepatointestinal regulatory, hormonal regulatory activities, and so forth. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the resources and distribution, processing procedures and application, nutritional and phytochemical composition, and biological activities of pueraria, and gives insights into developing pueraria as a potential and novel ingredient for its versatile food and nonfood applications along with the latest researches conducted worldwide. Furthermore, it highlights the safety and regulatory issues for consumption of pueraria as food ingredient.