ABSTRACT
Grain crops are the most necessary and basic source of food in human life and are generally divided into two main types of commercial crops: cereals and legumes. Chapter 4 primarily discusses the cancer-preventive functions and constituents of six kinds of whole grains and three kinds of beans, and explains their anticarcinogenic and antitumor immunity activities. Both activities have been confirmed to be contributed by various bioactive ingredients such as micromolecules such as flavonoids, phenolics, alkaloids, peptides, and phenylpropanoid glycosides, and macromolecules such as polysaccharides, glycoprotein, proteins, lectins, protease inhibitors, and enzymes. However, most of these components show greater quantities in the inedible parts of grains. Consequently, many suggestions are provided on how to select suitable grains and beans as our staple foods for cancer prevention and how to utilize the by-products for the development and improvement of food products. Notably, this chapter also introduces one anticancer candidate extracted from a unique grain product currently undergoing phase-II clinical trials in many places of the world.
