Brassica vegetables—an undervalued nutritional goldmine

Abstract

The genus Brassica includes six species and over 15 types of vegetables that are widely cultivated and consumed globally. This group of vegetables is rich in bioactive compounds, including glucosinolates, vitamins (such as vitamin C, folate, tocopherol, and phylloquinone), carotenoids, phenols, and minerals, which are crucial for enriching diets and maintaining human health. However, the full extent of these phytonutrients and their significant health benefits remain to be fully elucidated. This review highlights the nutrient compositions and health advantages of Brassica vegetables and discusses the impacts of various processing methods on their nutritional value. Additionally, we discuss potential strategies for enhancing the nutrition of Brassica crops through agronomic biofortification, conventional breeding, and biotechnological or metabolic engineering approaches. This review lays the foundation for the nutritional improvement of Brassica crops.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Yiguo Hong for his critical review and invaluable suggestions that significantly improved manuscript. This work was partially funded by the Innovative Research Group Project of Hebei Natural Science Foundation (grant number C2024204246), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 32372736 and 32330096), the Science and Technology Project of the Hebei Education Department (grant numbers YJZ2024001 and JZX2024001), and the Hebei Natural Science Foundation (grant number C2023204308), the Key Research and Development Program of Hebei (grant number 21326311D-2). We would also like to thank A&L Scientific Editing (www.alpublish.com) for their linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Author contributions

X.Z., Q.J., X.J., and X.S. prepared the manuscript. X.Z., Q.J., and X.J. wrote the paper. J.L., L.M., Z.L., W.M., and J.Z. revised the Manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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