Saponins: A concise review on food related aspects, applications and health implications

•Bioavailability of saponins depends on the structure of aglycone and sugar molecule.•Saponins possess numerous health benefits along with a few adverse effect.•Used as a natural additive in the food and pharmaceutical industries.•Stability and bioavailability of saponins also effected by the method of processing. In recent years, saponins are gaining extensive attention due to their occurrence in several plants. Saponins and their derivatives are versatile glycosidic compounds, which play an important role in food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries, ranging from as a natural additive in food and having their role in traditional medicines to various applications in the pharmaceutical sector. They possess immense therapeutic potential as hypolipidemic, hypoglycaemic, anti-asthmatic, antioxidant, anti-hypertensive, and anti-microbial activity along with few adverse effects such as cytotoxicity, etc. These emerging properties led to increased demand for saponins and therefore to meet the requirements, the researchers emphasize the synthetic production of saponins apart from the natural ones. The composition and bioavailability of saponins in food are significantly influenced by processing technologies because of the alterations between the linkages of aglycones and sugar chains. Therefore, an attempt has been made to make the consumer aware of the potential health benefits upon consumption of this magical compound. This review provides a concise and updated overview of saponins, the effect of different processing methods, health implications along various remedial effects and industrial uses of saponins.