The Health Benefits and Edible Properties of Leek

Abstract

Leek is one the main vegetable which can promote good health and serves as a primary defense mechanism against different diseases. Leek (Allium ampeloprasum) is a robust, winter-hardy biennial plant which does not form a hard bulb like garlic or onion, and they are grown for their thick and long white stem. One of the most important herbal food which is very common in Iran is persian leek. The keywords of medicinal properties, traditional medicine, leek, health benefits, fla-vones, flavonol, and tannin were searched in Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar. Leek is rich in different bioactive components such as sulphuric components and flavonoids, and saponin with a variety of biological characteristics such as antihypertensive, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antihyper-lipidemic, anticarcinogenic and antiatherosclerotic effects. One of the most important flavonoids aglycone in leek is kaempferol. The aim of this manuscript is to introduce and survey the most important pharmacological benefits of leek. Nutrition therapy with application of leek on the basis of traditional and modern science can be an approprate choice at treating common diseases.

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Biol. Life Sci. Forum 2023, 26, x. hps://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx www.mdpi.com/journal/blsf
Proceeding Paper
The Health Benets and Edible Properties of Leek †
Mohamad Hesam Shahrajabian 1,‡, Nazanin Shahrajabian 2 and Wenli Sun 1,*,‡
1 Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China;
hesamshahrajabian@gmail.com
2 Department of Economics, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran;
Nazanin.rajabian@gmail.com
* Correspondence: sunwenli@caas.com; Tel.: +86-13-4260-83836
† Presented at the 4th International Electronic Conference on Foods, 15–30 October 2023; Available online:
hps://foods2023.sciforum.net/.
‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: Leek is one the main vegetable which can promote good health and serves as a primary
defense mechanism against dierent diseases. Leek (Allium ampeloprasum) is a robust, winter-hardy
biennial plant which does not form a hard bulb like garlic or onion, and they are grown for their
thick and long white stem. One of the most important herbal food which is very common in Iran is
persian leek. The keywords of medicinal properties, traditional medicine, leek, health benets, a-
vones, avonol, and tannin were searched in Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar. Leek is rich in
dierent bioactive components such as sulphuric components and avonoids, and saponin with a
variety of biological characteristics such as antihypertensive, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antihyper-
lipidemic, anticarcinogenic and antiatherosclerotic eects. One of the most important avonoids
aglycone in leek is kaempferol. The aim of this manuscript is to introduce and survey the most im-
portant pharmacological benets of leek. Nutrition therapy with application of leek on the basis of
traditional and modern science can be an approprate choice at treating common diseases.
Keywords: leek; glycoside; medicinal plants; tannin; natural products; avonol; avones
1. Introduction
This edible vegetable has been used as traditional herbal medicine and a super food
in dierent countries [1–10], and most population of the world especially in developing
countries relies on traditional medicine [16–21]. Leek utilization is very common in dier-
ent traditional medicines such as traditional Chinese medicines, traditional Persian med-
icine, traditional Indian medicine, etc. [21–34]. Genus Allium contains around 500–700 spe-
cies and there are medicinal, edible and ornamental species among them, and plants in
Allium family are cool-season, herbaceous, biennial vegetables which are grown as annu-
als. Leek (Allium ampeloprasum) is winter-hardy and robust biennials which does not have
a hard bulb like garlic or onions. Leeks are sweeter than onion which have a creamy tex-
ture when cooked. They are more cold tolerant than garlic and onions, however they pre-
fer weer conditions for its site requirements. Leek evolved as a complex of dierent cyto-
and morpho-types widely distributed either in domesticated or wild range of the Medi-
terranean regions. The goal of the article is survey on the most notable pharmaceutical
advantages and health benets of leek with considering traditional knowledge and mod-
ern science of natural products. The current searching was done by the keywords in main
indexing systems including Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE, Institute for Scientic Web of
Science, and search engine of Google Scholar. The keywords were health benets, tradi-
tional medicine, leek, pharmaceutical science, glycoside, rutin, and avones.
Citation: Shahrajabian, M.H.;
Shahrajabian, N.; Sun, W. The
Health Benets and Edible
Properties of Leek. Biol. Life Sci.
Forum 2023, 26, x.
hps://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx
Academic Editor(s): Name
Published: date
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Submied for possible open access
publication under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Aribution (CC BY) license
(hps://creativecommons.org/license
s/by/4.0/).

Biol. Life Sci. Forum 2023, 26, x 2 of 4
2. Leek and Pharmacological Benets
Allium species are considered rich sources of secondary metabolites, including phe-
nolics acids, and their derivatives, avonoids such as avanone, avan, avonol, avones,
dihydroavonol, avan-4-ol, avan-3-ol and avan-3,4-diol, and avonoid polymers such
as proanthocyanidins or condensed tannins which have tremendous health benets
[35,36]. The plant has a large amount of cystein sulfoxides, which has antioxidant and
anti-diabetic properties [37], and it has some active ingredient similar to garlic, which can
be useful for serum glucose and lipids [38]. The medicinal property of Allium is mainly
because of the presence of many sulfur containing bioactive components such as methyl
propenyl disulde, dimethyl disule, propyl propenyl disulde, methyl propyl trisulde,
dimethyl trisulde, methyl propenyl trisulde, S-methyl cystein sulfoxide, S-propyl
cystein sulfoxide, and S-propenyl cystein sulfoxide [39]. Chemical and nutritional charac-
terization of Allium ampeloprasum L. are energy, water, protein, carbohydrate, total fat,
ash, dietary, glucose, dry maer, sucrose, fructose, oxalic acid composition, polysaccha-
rides, malic acid, glutamic acid, succinic acid, macro and micro nutrient and heavy metal
[40–42]. Alliums were revered to possess anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties and in-
clude the powerful antioxidants, sulfur and other dierent phenolic components which
arouse signicant aentions [43,44]. Leek leaf extract has strong anthelmintic characteris-
tic and it can be used in killing of inactivation of mtacercarial parasitic infection in sh
[45]. Leek juices administration aenuated the severity of oxidative damage accompany-
ing dimethoate toxicity with hepatoprotective eects [46]. Allium ampeloprasum L. can con-
tribute to the survival of probiotic and benecial microorganisms in unsuitable storage
conditions and increase the tissue and sensory activities of the product [47]. In fact anti-
oxidative, antitoxic, anti-inammatory and immunostimulating activities of Allium am-
peloprasum crown it as a magical herb in modern era where people are suering from
dierent side eects of synthetic drugs [41,48].
3. Conclusions
Leek is an edible vegetable which has been used as traditional herbal medicine and
food in various countries as most population of the world in both developing and under
developed countries rely on traditional herbal medicines. Leek is considered as a rich
source of secondary metabolites such as avav, avones, avanone, avonol, avan-3-ol,
dihydroavonol, avan-3,4-dion, and avan-4-ol as well as phenolic acids and their de-
rivatives. The main avonoid polymers of leek is condensed tannins and proanthocya-
nidins, and the most famous avonoid aglycone in leek is kaempferol. Flavonoids, the
total polyphenol and tannin contents and antioxidant properties are strongly aected by
the environmental conditions. The most pharmacological advantages of leek are antisep-
tic, anti-asthma, diuretic, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, and it is important natural
medicine to protect skin again damage and reducing risk of gastrointestinal diseases. Leek
is one the main vegetable which can promote goof health and serves as a primary defense
mechanism against many diseases.
Author Contributions: M.H.S., writing-original draft, preparation and editing; W.S., writing-origi-
nal draft preparations. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing, China (Grant
No.M21026). This research was also supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Re-
search grant 2019YFA0904700).
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: We are thanking and appreciate all the members and stas of Biotechnology
Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.

Biol. Life Sci. Forum 2023, 26, x 3 of 4
Conicts of Interest: The authors declare no conict of interest.
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