Winged bean: From underutilized legume to multi-utility crop- nutritional, phytochemical, industrial, and functional perspectives for global food security and sustainability

Winged bean ( Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC.), an underutilized tropical legume, exhibits significant nutritional, industrial, and medicinal potential. It is called the ‘one-species supermarket’ or the ‘soybean of the tropics,’ as nearly all parts of the plant including seeds, young pods, tubers, and leaves are edible and provide high-quality protein (28–45%), essential amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and beneficial lipids. It is also rich in bioactive compounds, such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, saponins, and anthocyanins, thus providing antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, and cardioprotective properties which makes it as a valuable functional food ingredient. Industrially, winged bean protein isolates and seed oils demonstrate superior functional attributes for food processing applications, animal feed, nutraceutical formulations, and biofuel production. Despite these extensive benefits, its mainstream adoption remains limited due to inadequate breeding programs, pest susceptibility, lack of standardized nutritional phenotyping, and low market visibility. This review synthesizes existing knowledge on winged bean’s botanical characteristics, nutrient and anti-nutrient profiles, bioactive compounds and their extraction and estimation strategies, industrial applications, biological activities, and breeding strategies for biotic stress resistance. It also highlights future research opportunities, particularly using advanced genomic-assisted breeding, AI-integrated high-throughput nutritional screening, and development of novel value-added products. Strategic utilization of these advanced approaches will enhance the incorporation of winged bean into sustainable agricultural systems, enhance food and nutritional security, and maximize its commercial potential globally.