**1. Introduction**

In recent years, there has been noticed a growing interest in plant raw materials whose properties allow them to be used in both food and medicines. Various cereal grains are widely used in the food and beverage industry. There is a fairly broad group of plants that are classified as so-called pseudo-cereals. This means that the edible parts of these plants are the seeds and they usually are consumed in a similar way to cereals, being processed into flour. They also have similar nutritional values and taste to cereals. These are not typical cereals, but due to their similar composition and nutritional value mentioned above, they can be a good alternative. Pseudo-cereals have been the staple food of our ancestors for thousands of years, and all over the world. In different regions of the world, different pseudocereals predominate. Even today, pseudo-cereals still form the basis of nutrition in the poorest parts of the world. They have been increasingly appreciated in European countries for a long time. The best-known pseudo-cereals are amaranth, buckwheat, sorghum, millet, chia as well as khorasan. Actually, the most widely studied pseudocereals are quinoa, amaranth, chia, and buckwheat [1]. They present grea<sup>t</sup> potential as a natural source of a wide spectrum of biologically active compounds. Recent work suggests that first and foremost peptides and protein hydrolysates derived from these beneficial species for the human health are worth considering [1]. The first study on an amaranth protein deriving bioactive peptide with cholesterol esterase and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activities was published in 2021 by Ajayi and colleagues [2].

Due to climate change, the problem of world hunger, and changes in crop profiles in European and other countries around the world, it is becoming desirable to look for new plants with a high nutritional potential that can be combined with health benefits. Amaranth is a plant with valuable qualities as food and additionally with many valuable health properties. Additional important advantages of this plant are satisfactory yield

**Citation:** Baraniak, J.; Kania-Dobrowolska, M. The Dual Nature of Amaranth—Functional Food and Potential Medicine. *Foods* **2022**, *11*, 618. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/foods11040618

Academic Editor: Antonello Santini

Received: 24 January 2022 Accepted: 19 February 2022 Published: 21 February 2022

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performance, drought resistance, and enhanced photosynthesis. The excellent nutritional value of amaranth [3], the diverse chemical composition of amaranth seeds and leaves, the wide spectrum of biological activity, health-promoting properties, and the pharmacological activity of the plant have aroused the interest of researchers in recent years. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of scientific studies on the properties and potential use of preparations from this plant. The PubMed database was used to locate publications with the most important data describing the nutritional and pharmacological activity of amaranth preparations.
