Advances in grain sorghum and its co-products as a human health promoting dietary system

•A review on the human health benefits of grain sorghum and it co-products was conducted based on literature published in the last 10 years.•Grain sorghum is a highly potential functional food due to its high content and chemically diverse phytochemicals.•Grain sorghum could potentially prevent multiple disease causing cell stressors or positively impact on existing diseases.•Grain sorghum can thus be beneficial for both western societies and developing countries that are adopting an urban lifestyle.

Grain sorghum (GS) and its co-products are a rich source of chemically diverse phytochemicals, many of which have been reported to protect against multiple human health conditions or diseases that are currently afflicting western cultures. However, due to rapid urbanization and nutrition transition, these diseases are also increasing in developing worlds, making sorghum an even more relevant food staple for these countries. Research on GS and its co-products thus is also steadily increasing but as potential functional foods or as supplements. For example, studies have demonstrated that both GS lipids and its co-product, dry distiller's grain sorghum were able to promote cardiovascular health by reducing both plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and liver cholesterol levels but at different dosage levels. Grain sorghum phenols have also been shown to inhibit hepatic gluconeogenesis enzymes thereby promoting endogenous insulin sensitivity. As these results represent only a few of the health related studies cited in the literature in response to GS within the past 10 years, this manuscript reviews studies on GS and its co-products as a potential health promoting system reported between 2005 and 2015.