Abstract
The aim of this review was to provide information on the nutritional components of legumes that can improve human wellbeing. Legumes are nutrient dense food crops with numerous health benefits. They have the ability to withstand harsh weather and naturally enrich soil, thus, reducing fertilizing cost. However, despite the advantages of legumes over other crops, they have not been fully utilized in food systems especially in developing countries. This review explores the nutritional profile of different types of legumes, factors influencing legume utilization and, the health benefits of legumes. Thus, providing vital information required to enhance industrial and domestic usage of legumes with a goal to promote legume cultivation for sustainable food production and improved healthy living.
Highlights
Legumes belong to the family Leguminosae and produce seeds within pods (Nieuwenhuis and Nieuwelink, 2005)
This review provides information on legume production and consumption, processing and utilization, factors limiting legumes consumptions and utilization, nutrient profile of different legumes, effect of processing methods on the nutritional profile of legumes and health benefits of legumes as quality factors that can enhance industrial utilization and domestic usage of legumes, and increase legume consumption for better health
Processing methods have been used for decades to reduce anti-nutritional factors and increase the nutritive value of legume seeds. Cooking methods such as boiling, autoclaving and microwave cooking, and germination have been reported to have no significant effect on the total protein content of chickpea, but increased its crude fibre by 21-30% (El-Adawy, 2002; Alajaji and El-Adawy, 2006) and significantly decreased non-protein nitrogen, carbohydrate fractions, fat, ash, minerals and B-vitamins contents of chickpeas and mung beans (El-Adawy, 2002; Alajaji and El-Adawy, 2006; Mubarak, 2005)
Summary
Legumes belong to the family Leguminosae and produce seeds within pods (Nieuwenhuis and Nieuwelink, 2005). This process helps to increase protein digestibility and mineral bioavailability and reduce the concentration of anti-nutritional factors (such as tannins, phytic acid) and indigestible carbohydrates (Boye and Ma, 2012).
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