Substantial Depletion of Vicine, Levodopa, and Tyramine in a Fava Bean Protein-Based Nutritional Product.

Paul W Johns,Steven R Hertzler

doi:10.1155/2021/6669544

Abstract

A commercial fava bean protein isolate and a liquid nutritional product formulated with it were tested by validated HPLC methods for the favism-associated pyrimidine glycoside vicine, the dopamine precursor levodopa, and the biogenic amine tyramine. The vicine, levodopa, and tyramine concentrations in the protein isolate—306, 13.3, and <0.5 mg/kg, respectively—when expressed on a protein basis—34, 1.5, and <0.06 mg/100 g protein, respectively—were at least 96% lower than the vicine, levodopa, and tyramine (protein-based) concentrations reported for fava beans (≥900, ~200, and ~4 mg/100 g protein, respectively). This was also true for the vicine (13 mg/kg or 22 mg/100 g protein), levodopa (≤0.17 mg/kg or ≤0.3 mg/100 g protein), and tyramine (0.08 mg/kg or 0.14 mg/100 g protein) concentrations in the nutritional product. On the basis of these data, one serving (11 fl. oz.) of the nutritional product would deliver approximately 5 mg of vicine, <1 mg of levodopa, and <0.1 mg of tyramine.

Highlights

The fava bean (Vicia faba) has been identified as a “highprotein crop” suitable for large-scale cultivation as a sustainable plant source of dietary protein [1]
When three different lots of fava bean protein isolate (FBPI) obtained from the same supplier were tested, an average VC concentration of 306 ± 20mg/kg was obtained, so that the lot-to-lot RSD was 6.7% (n = 3 lots, Table 2)
When expressed on a protein basis, these concentrations (34, 1.5, and

Summary

Introduction

The fava bean (Vicia faba) has been identified as a “highprotein crop” suitable for large-scale cultivation as a sustainable plant source of dietary protein [1]. Fava beans contain 24-32% (w/w) protein, and the fava bean protein (like the protein from soy and other legumes) does not exhibit the human dietary lysine deficiency associated with cereal proteins (Cardador-Martinez et al 2014, [2]). By virtue of these and additional attributes—including nitrogen fixation capacity and soybean substitution potential—fava beans (with a global production of 4.1 million tons in 2014) are regarded as one of the more globally important legume crops, and research directed at increasing yield, protein, and stress resistance, as well as decreasing antinutritional factors, is underway [2,3,4,5]. TY (which, along with histamine, “is well established as the most toxicologically active biogenic amines, due to their relatively low threshold toxic level—‘as low as 6 mg of TY in a 4-hour period’—in addition to the severity of the symptoms they may cause”) has been associated with “peripheral vasoconstriction, increased cardiac output, increased respiration, elevated blood glucose, and release of norepinephrine” [11,12,13,14,15]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion