Table 5.

Summarised biological activities of Finger millet

Properties	Functional role	References
Antidiabetic properties	(i) Phenolic compounds in whole-grain flour—controlling blood glucose levels in alloxan-induced type II diabetes rats	Hegde et al. (2005)
	(ii) Impact on postprandial blood glucose concentrations, reduce the risk of diabetes induced cataract diseases	Chethan et al. (2008)
	(iii) Phenolics extract from the seed coat inhibits α-glucosidase and pancreatic amylase reduce postprandial hyperglycemia by partially inhibiting the enzymatic hydrolysis of complex carbohydrates	Shobana et al. (2009)
	(iv) Multigrain flour containing 30% Finger millet proportion: lowered plasma glucose levels due to delayed carbohydrate digestibility mediated by dietary fiber	Pradhan et al. (2010)
	(v) Positive impact on the speed of healing for skin wounds and delayed the onset of cataracts in the rat models	Rao and Muralikrishna (2002), Rajasekaran et al. (2004), Shobana et al.( 2010) and Shukla and Srivastava (2014)
	(vi) Finger millet-based foods- exhibit a lower glycemic index and contribute to a lower glycemic response
Antioxidant properties	(i) Seed coat—possess antioxidant activity	Hegde et al. (2005) and Chandrasekara and Shahidi (2010)
	(ii) Seed coat/acidic methanol—derivatives of benzoic acid (gallic acid, proto-catechuic acid, and p-hydroxy benzoic acid) and cinnamic acid (p-coumaric acid, syringic acid, ferulic acid, and trans-cinnamic acid)	Chethan et al. (2008)
	(iii) Whole flour methanol extract—antioxidant activity, linoleic acid assay, DPPH radical, hydroxyl quenching action	Varsha et al. (2009)
	(iv) Ferulic and p-coumaric acid—bound phenolic fraction in Finger millet accounting for 64– 96 and 50–99% of total ferulic and p-coumaric acid content of Finger millet grains	Devi et al. (2014)
Anti-carcinogenic properties	(i) Phenolic components—tannins, and phytate—help in reducing cancer initiation and progression	Chandrasekara and Shahidi (2011a, b)
	(ii) Phenolics and phenolic acid derivatives, flavonoids, and aminoacids in the free (FM-FP) and bound (FM-BP) phenolic compounds- modulate the proliferative potential of breast and colorectal cancer cells	Mahadevaswamy et al. (2022)
	(iii) Finger millet variety KMR 301—demonstrated anti-cancer effects by inducing cell death in breast and colorectal cancer cells	Kuruburu et al. (2022)
Cardio-protective properties	(i) Fermentation of Finger millet: produce metabolites like statin and sterol—employed in therapies designed to address hypercholesterolemia	Venkateswaran and Vijayalakshmi (2010)
	(ii) Phenolics: oxidative modification of LDL cholesterol in a vitro system involving copper to induce oxidative modification of LDL cholesterol	Chandrasekara and Shahidi (2012a, b)
	(iii) Soluble dietary fibre: reduces the reabsorption of bile acids	Chandrasekara and Shahidi (2012b)
	(iv) Control lipid metabolism and antioxidant metabolism	Vasant et al. (2014)
Antimicrobial properties	(i) Germinated and ungerminated millet phenol extract—against Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Yersinia enterocolitica, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serrtia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumonia	Chethan and Malleshi (2007)
	(ii) Seed coat phenolic extract—active against Bacillus cereus, Aspergillus niger	Varsha et al. (2009)
	(iii) Seed coat rich fraction: active against E. coli, B. cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Serratia marcescens, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Yersinia enterocolitica	Banerjee et al. (2012)
	(iv) Seed extract in ethyl acetate and hexane: active against E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella dysenteriae, Enterococcus sp., and Salmonella sp	Singh et al. (2015)
	(v) Ethanolic and methanolic extracts of Sri Lankan Finger millet varieties: against antibiotic-sensitive S. aureus (ATCC® 6538™) and B. subtilis (ATCC® 23,857™) strains	Jayawardana et al. (2020)
Osteoporosis	(i) Finger millet seeds: Calcium content 364 ± 58 mg/100 g	Bhavya Bhanu et al. (2017)