Chapter 7 - South American fermented legume, pulse, and oil seeds-based products

Abstract

Legumes, pulses, and oilseeds are foods that have been present throughout the evolution of man and have provided essential nutrients and bioactive compounds in the diet. When the man found cereal crops, he began to look for ways to prepare new foods, and a new preparation method known today as fermentation emerged. Thus, the world’s different societies began to ferment many products that they kept discovering; among them legumes, pulses, and oilseeds were the mostly used. Unfortunately, in South America, these foods in their fermented presentation have not had the same fame as cereals, and therefore, there is not much scientific information on how these preparations were made in the indigenous societies. In this chapter, the main fermented products based on legumes, pulses, and oilseeds have been searched through a bibliographic review. The main fermented products were found: cauim, a fermented beverage made from rice, peanuts, cottonseed, and corn (Brazil); chicha of chontaduro (Bactris gasipae), and chicha de morete (Mauritia flexuosa) are fermented beverages from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; Aloja, a fermented beverage made from carob pods (Prosopis alba) in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru. In addition, the cocoa beverage is obtained from cocoa beans (Theobroma cacao L.) and its mucilage in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The compilation of this chapter is very important, because this information is scattered in different research studies. Therefore, these fermented products represent hundreds of years of culture of various people and need greater visibility so that they are not lost over time.