Valle Agricola Chickpeas: Nutritional Profile and Metabolomics Traits of a Typical Landrace Legume from Southern Italy.

Nicola Landi,Severina Pacifico,Simona Piccolella,Antimo Di Maro,Angela Clemente,Sara Ragucci,Shadab Faramarzi,Stefania Papa

doi:10.3390/foods10030583

Nicola Landi, Severina Pacifico + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10030583

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Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) from Valle Agricola is a legume cultivated in Southern Italy whose intake is strictly linked to rural traditions. In order to get new biochemical insight on this landrace and to promote its consumption and marketing, nutritional values (moisture content, total proteins, lipids, total and free amino acids) and metabolic traits are deeply investigated. Valle Agricola chickpea is nutritionally rich in proteins (19.70 g/100 g) and essential amino acids (7.12 g/100 g; ~40% of total). Carbohydrates, whose identity was unraveled by means of UHPLC-HR MS/MS analysis, were almost 60% of chemicals. In particular, a di-galactosylglycerol, a pinitol digalactoside, and a galactosylciceritol were found as constitutive, together with different raffinose-series oligosaccharides. Although lipids were the less constitutive compounds, glycerophospholipids were identified, while among free fatty acids linoleic acid (C18:2) was the most abundant, followed by oleic (C18:1) and palmitic (C16:0) acids. Isoflavones and hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives were also detected. Valle Agricola chickpeas showed very good levels of several mineral nutrients, especially magnesium (164 mg/100 g), potassium (748 mg/100 g), calcium (200 mg/100 g), zinc (4.20 mg/100 g) and manganese (0.45 mg/100 g). The boiling process favorably decreases anti-trypsin and anti-chymotrypsin activities, depleting this precious seed of its intrinsic antinutritional factors.

Highlights

The “Mediterranean diet”, which was recognized by the UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” [1], is mainly based on a high intake of vegetables, pulses, fruit, and cereals, in addition to fish and other foods, of which the Mediterranean basin is diversely rich
Raw proteins in legumes are a reservoir of the limiting amino acid lysine, whereas they are deficient in essential sulfur amino acids and tryptophan, requiring that they be consumed in a varied diet with cereals [9]
Considering that the two samples have no statistical differences, except for lipid content, we compared the average values with those of common Italian chickpeas reported by the Centro di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione [26], and with the values of both Merella and Alta Valle di Misa Italian chickpeas grown in the Piemonte and Marche regions [27]

Summary

Introduction

The “Mediterranean diet”, which was recognized by the UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” [1], is mainly based on a high intake of vegetables, pulses (beans, lentils, etc.), fruit, and cereals, in addition to fish and other foods, of which the Mediterranean basin is diversely rich. The preventive and protective effects towards cancer, or its recurrence, were investigated, so much so that the Mediterranean dietary pattern was hypothesized to be a lifestyle, and eating is synonymous with health and longevity [5,6]. Legumes, with their diversity in nutrients, represent a key food for the sustainable and healthy Mediterranean diet [7]. Besides the beneficial effects on human health, sustainable agriculture benefits from legume cultivation thanks to their symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and low water requirements [11]. In light of this, having a large reservoir of legume landraces is of interest to make up for the decrease in diversity imposed by mechanized agriculture and to dispose of a rich crop gene pool (large genetic variability) necessary to improve both the health effects and a cultivation capable of promoting a sustainable agriculture [11,12]

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