A systematic review of highland barley: Ingredients, health functions and applications

Due to its high nutritional and dietotherapy values, highland barley has attracted the attention and favor of people all over the world in recent years. It has been demonstrated that the nutritional components of highland barley are comprehensive and unique, with the characteristics of high protein, high fiber, high vitamin, low fat, low sugar and variety of bioactive components. As the most important component in highland barley, highland barley starch not only has low digestibility, but also has good freeze-thaw stability, high solubility, good emulsion stability and superior film forming performance, which makes it have great application value in food, medicine and industrial production. The content of highland barley protein, which is rich in 18 kinds of amino acids, is higher than that of most grains, and its derivatives play an important role in medical treatment. Unfortunately, highland barley protein cannot form gluten network structure, which limits the application in daily staple food to a certain extent. Highland barley also contains a large amount of dietary fiber, especially β-glucan. Long-term consumption could significantly reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and metabolic syndromes such as heart disease and diabetes. However, the research on the application of highland barley is still in the laboratory stage, which failed to achieve large-scale application in the actual production. The value of highland barley has not been brought into full play, which leads to the waste of its resources and the reduction of its added value. This paper reviewed the macronutrients, health functions and applications of highland barley, aiming to provide some reference for the development of highland barley in food and health industry.