Urtica dioica as an emerging resource for sustainable food systems through nutrition, food innovation, and value-chain development

Abstract Global food systems face growing challenges related to nutritional insecurity, environmental degradation, climate change, and increasing pressure on natural resources. These challenges have renewed interest in underutilized plant species that can support food-system diversification and sustainability. Urtica dioica has emerged as a promising candidate because of its high nutritional value, multifunctional bioactive properties, and broad applicability across food and agricultural systems. This systematic review synthesizes current evidence on the biological and agronomic foundations, nutritional composition, functional properties, food applications, processing technologies, food-feed integration opportunities, and sustainability contributions. Unlike previous reviews that have focused on specific aspects of nettle, this review integrates reports across nutrition, food innovation, value-chain development, and sustainability within a unified food-systems perspective. The literature indicates that nettle is a nutrient-dense species rich in proteins, dietary fiber, essential minerals, vitamins, and diverse phytochemicals with antioxidant and functional properties. Beyond its nutritional attributes, nettle has shown potential in food fortification, natural preservation, functional ingredient development, and innovative processing applications while supporting integrated food-feed systems, value-added product development, circular bioeconomy approaches, and agroecological sustainability through improved resource-use efficiency, soil improvement, biodiversity support, climate adaptation, and phytoremediation. Despite these advantages, challenges related to production standardization, nutrient bioavailability, quality assurance, consumer acceptance, and large-scale commercialization remain insufficiently addressed. Overall, the available evidence suggests that nettle is a promising but underutilized resource capable of contributing to more diverse, resilient, and sustainable food systems. Future research should adopt an integrated agronomic, nutritional, technological, environmental, and market-oriented approach to support wider adoption and commercialization.