In today’s nutrition landscape, where superfoods and dietary trends often take center stage, microgreens emerge as modest yet powerful contenders. Their delicate appearance conceals a nutritional wealth that surpasses their mature counterparts, offering a range of health benefits. Microgreens are the young seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs, typically harvested within 7–21 days of germination. Throughout the history they have been used in culinary traditions across various cultures. But their nutritional profile and health-promoting properties have gathered significant scientific interest recently. Microgreens are currently popular because of their potent flavour, functionality, appealing sensory characteristics, and surplus of minerals, vitamins and bioactive compounds such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, phylloquinones, tocopherol, folates, etc. This chapter aims to delve into the development of microgreens from different types of foods such as legumes, pulses, cereals, vegetables and millets, role of microgreens as a functional food, nutritional composition of microgreens and explore their possible health advantages such as anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-obese, anti-inflammatory effects etc. From enhancing immune function to mitigating chronic diseases, the diverse array of bioactive substances found in microgreens holds promise for promoting overall well-being. By synthesizing findings from recent studies and elucidating underlying mechanisms, this chapter seeks to illuminate the transformative potential of integrating microgreens into dietary practices.
