Garden Cress

Description

Garden Cress is an edible related to the family of watercress, mustard and is known for its peppery, tangy flavour and aroma. A mature Garden Cress plant produces white flowers and small seed pods, surprisingly all parts of garden cress are edible – leaves, stems, and seeds.
Garden Cress seeds are heaped with nutrients including iron, folate, Vitamin C, A, E, fibre and protein and include these in your daily diet to enjoy a broad spectrum of health benefits.
It has been used as an important medicinal plant since the Vedic era. Its seed, oil, and powder contain significant amount of protein, fat, minerals, fibers, and phytochemicals, which are incorporated in many functional beverages and foods. A number of clinical trials have been conducted on rats that also support the efficacy of garden cress seeds (GCSs). The seed of garden cress was used in the fortification of different food items but due to the lack of their physicochemical properties and medicinal value, the exploration of the potential of garden cress seed was limited. In the present review, we discuss the proximate chemical composition, physicochemical, medicinal properties, and the food product development with garden cress seed. The functional properties of garden cress seed stimulate us to review its different valuable properties and the fortified products developed by incorporating garden cress seeds.