As community development priorities merge with those of environmental conservation, it becomes increasingly clear that unless human populations meet their basic survival needs, they cannot afford to conserve. And nutrition represents the most fundamental of human needs; it provides a useful perspective from which to address this paradox. When people have reduced access to and intake of crucial bioresources, they may suffer from protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease that reflect lopsided intake of nutrients and non-nutrients protecting health, underscore the cost of increased reliance on processed foods or a narrow species base by industrial societies and urban populations. Major public health problems of global importance such as tuberculosis, measles, gastrointestinal and respiratory disease all reflect the interaction of nutritional and environmental factors to identify crop varieties and minor/underutilized crops with selective nutritional assets such as micronutrients, soluble fiber, or antioxidants and to analyze the nutritional contents of indigenous fruits and vegetables and wild edible species.
Garden cress (Lepidium sativum), an annual erect herbaceous plant, cultivated all over India, is such an underutilized crop that nature has gifted us containing the treasure trove of nutritive and therapeutic properties. It contains high amount of protein and iron. It has also been said to have significant amount of calcium and folic acid in addition to vitamin A and C. Besides, it is also beneficial in treating diseases like malnutrition, anaemia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, asthma, kidney and those of liver. This study was experimentally undertaken to assess the nutritive value of garden cress as well as to develop few low cost, nutritious food products incorporating garden cress seeds as an ingredient in order to fulfil basic need and solve health problems. Proximate estimations made included moisture, protein, fat, fibre, total carbohydrate, calcium, phosphorous and iron. Food products (ladoo and baal ahar) were developed and sensory evaluation undertaken to assess the acceptability outcome. The results of nutrient analysis indicated that both food products were highly acceptable and protein content stood at 25.3 percent along with content of iron at around 100mg/100g. Likewise, calcium content was exceptionally high (377mg/100g). Hence garden cress provides adequate nutrition and solution to health problems that increases options for conservation, or at least reduces pressure on people to use resources unsustainably in the effort to meet their basic needs.
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