Abstract
Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) is a pulse of great importance for food and feed due its high resistance to poor environmental conditions. However, it contains anti-nutritional factors and a neurotoxin, which is partially lost during soaking. A first approach to mass transfer during the soaking of grass pea was carried out by modeling the water uptake during soaking time using empirical mathematical models. The water uptake behavior was successfully described by the Peleg and the Exponential models, with these models showing several advantages when compared to the Mitscherlich and Page models. Both models estimated an increase of the equilibrium moisture content at temperatures between 50 °C and 100 °C, and detected an increasing effect of the area per volume ratio of the seed on the water uptake rate, but only at 75 °C and 100 °C. Additionally, grass pea presented a high true porosity, 13.651%, showing that it contains a large empty volume into which water can enter by capillary flow. Solids loss was observed to be high, varying from 18% at 25 °C to 44% at 100 °C for long soaking times, confirming that its effect in soaking cannot be neglected.
Highlights
Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) belongs to Leguminosae botanical family, called Fabaceae or Papilionaceae (Yadav & Bejiga, 2006)
The porosity partly explains the initial water uptake and, if the porous spaces are completely filled with water, can justify more than 9% of the grass pea weight increase during soaking
During the soaking of grass pea water enters the grass pea through several paths and mechanisms, into this seed of nonideal shape, what prevents, as an initial approach, a mathematical modeling of water uptake based on mechanistic models
Summary
Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) belongs to Leguminosae botanical family, called Fabaceae or Papilionaceae (Yadav & Bejiga, 2006). This family has three subfamilies, including Papilionoideae, to which the seed legumes belong. From the 187 of the genus Lathyrus, grass pea is the only used as food and is of great economic importance in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Ethiopia (Campbell, 1997). It is grown in Central, South and Eastern Europe, West Asia and North Africa. Care should be taken on an exclusive dependence on grass pea for protein intake, which is undesirable due to the presence of the toxin β-ODAP that is active when a complement of sulphur containing amino acids is not supplied in the diet (Ngudi et al, 2012)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
