Exploring Nutritional Properties, Bioactive Compounds, and Potential Applications of Tamarindus indica L.: An Underutilized Food Plant

L. (tamarind) is a traditionally consumed food and medicinal plant with increasing relevance in the development of functional foods and bioactive natural ingredients. While the fruit pulp has been extensively utilized in food products, other fractions, including seeds, shells, and leaves, remain comparatively underexploited despite emerging evidence of notable nutritional and phytochemical value. This review summarizes recent progress regarding the nutritional composition, phytochemical characteristics, biological activities, safety considerations, and industrial applications of different parts of tamarind. These studies indicate that tamarind is rich in carbohydrates, dietary fiber, proteins, minerals, vitamins, polysaccharides, and phenolic compounds, which are associated with anti-oxidant, antihyperglycemic, hypolipidemic, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and prebiotic effects. Nevertheless, most evidence is derived from in vitro and animal studies, while human clinical data remain scarce. In addition to their biological activities, tamarind-derived materials have shown promise in food formulation, pharmaceutical excipients, packaging systems, and environmental applications. Although these advances have been achieved, several challenges remain in compositional standardization, extraction efficiency, safety assessment, and clinical validation. Therefore, future research should focus on establishing standardized methods, optimizing extraction processes, improving safety evaluation systems, and conducting rigorous clinical trials to support the sustainable utilization of tamarind resources. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive scientific basis for the value-added development and sustainable utilization of tamarind resources.