Modification of the functional properties of hard-to-cook cowpea seed flours and cooked prepared pastes by γ-irradiation

Legume Seed Protein Digestibility as Influenced by Traditional and Emerging Physical Processing Technologies

The increased consumption of legume seeds as a strategy for enhancing food security, reducing malnutrition, and improving health outcomes on a global scale remains an ongoing subject of profound research interest. Legume seed proteins are rich in their dietary protein contents. However, coexisting with these proteins in the seed matrix are other components that inhibit protein digestibility. Thus, improving access to legume proteins often depends on the neutralisation of these inhibitors, which are collectively described as antinutrients or antinutritional factors. The determination of protein quality, which typically involves evaluating protein digestibility and essential amino acid content, is assessed using various methods, such as in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestibility, protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (IV-PDCAAS), and digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS). Since most edible legumes are mainly available in their processed forms, an interrogation of these processing methods, which could be traditional (e.g., cooking, milling, extrusion, germination, and fermentation) or based on emerging technologies (e.g., high-pressure processing (HPP), ultrasound, irradiation, pulsed electric field (PEF), and microwave), is not only critical but also necessary given the capacity of processing methods to influence protein digestibility. Therefore, this timely and important review discusses how each of these processing methods affects legume seed digestibility, examines the potential for improvements, highlights the challenges posed by antinutritional factors, and suggests areas of focus for future research.

Orphan legumes: harnessing their potential for food, nutritional and health security through genetic approaches

Legumes, being angiosperm's third-largest family as well as the second major crop family, contributes beyond 33% of human dietary proteins. The advent of the global food crisis owing to major climatic concerns leads to nutritional deprivation, hunger and hidden hunger especially in developing and underdeveloped nations. Hence, in the wake of promoting sustainable agriculture and nutritional security, apart from the popular legumes, the inclusion of lesser-known and understudied local crop legumes called orphan legumes in the farming systems of various tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world is indeed a need of the hour. Despite possessing tremendous potentialities, wide adaptability under diverse environmental conditions, and rich in nutritional and nutraceutical values, these species are still in a neglected and devalued state. Therefore, a major re-focusing of legume genetics, genomics, and biology is much crucial in pursuance of understanding the yield constraints, and endorsing underutilized legume breeding programs. Varying degrees of importance to these crops do exist among researchers of developing countries in establishing the role of orphan legumes as future crops. Under such circumstances, this article assembles a comprehensive note on the necessity of promoting these crops for further investigations and sustainable legume production, the exploitation of various orphan legume species and their potencies. In addition, an attempt has been made to highlight various novel genetic, molecular, and omics approaches for the improvement of such legumes for enhancing yield, minimizing the level of several anti-nutritional factors, and imparting biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. A significant genetic enhancement through extensive research in 'omics' areas is the absolute necessity to transform them into befitting candidates for large-scale popularization around the globe.

Extraction and characterization of starch from Yard-long bean (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. ssp. unguiculata cv.-gr. sesquipedalis)

Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis is an important derivative cultivar of cowpea planted widely in China, and popularly known as "Yard-long bean". There is lack of research about the structural characterization and physicochemical aspects of carbohydrate content in Yard-long bean seeds. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate structures, thermal and technological properties of Yard-long bean seeds starch (YSS). The starch contains little of ash, protein and total fiber meanwhile amylose content of 37.52%. The shapes of the starch granules obtained from field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were oval to semi-elliptical with little granules occurring in agglomerated structures clusters, and volume median diameter of granules ranged from 10.5 μm to 12.5 μm. The initial gelatinization temperature of YSS was 73.86 °C, peak temperature was 80.59 °C and final 88.53 °C. Solubility index (SI, 3.43% at 90 °C) and swelling power (SP, 6.62 g/g at 90 °C) were observed with low volume, which corroborated with the C-type structure shown by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high crystallinity degree. The extraction of YSS can be feasible, and it has suitable properties for use in the food industry.