Nutritional evaluation of tender pods of Canavalia maritima of coastal sand dunes

Abstract

This study has been performed to evaluate the nutritional, antinutritional and protein qualities of tender pods of Canavalia maritima, the coastal sand dune wild legume of southwest India. The proximal features, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, antinutritional and protein qualities of fresh and pressure-cooked tender pods have been assessed. The crude protein was comparable to seeds of many edible legumes. Cooking significantly elevated the carbohydrates and calorific value of tender pods (P<0.05), while crude fiber was significantly decreased (P<0.05). Minerals of fresh pods did not drain too much on cooking and K, Mg, Zn and Mn in fresh as well as cooked pods were comparable or higher than the NRC-NAS recommended pattern. Although cooking decreased the essential amino acids, threonine, valine, isoleucine, phenylalanine and lysine in cooked pods were equivalent or higher than the FAO-WHO-UNU recommended pattern. The palmitoleic acid in fresh pods and eicosenoic acid in cooked pods were relatively high. Similarly, the essential fatty acids, linolenic acid and linoleic acid were confined to fresh and cooked pods respectively. The fresh pods were devoid of tannins and trypsin inhibitors. The total phenolics and hemagglutinin activity decreased substantially in cooked pods. The diet of pressure-cooked pods showed improvement of in vivo protein quality, elevation of growth parameters and positive nitrogen balance in rats. Overall, the pressure-cooking of tender pods of C. maritima improved the nutritional qualities by lowering the hemagglutinin activity.

Key words： Canavalia maritima; wild legume; coastal sand dunes; nutrition; protein quality

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Mangalore University for permission to carry out this study at the Department of Biosciences.

References

1 Abbey B W, Ibeh G O (1987). Functional properties of raw and heat processed brown bean (Canavalia rosea DC.) flour. J Food Sci, 52: 406-408

2 AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Chemists) (1995). Official Methods of Analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists. 16th ed. Arlington, VA, USA: Association of Official Analytical Chemists

3 APHA (1995). Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Waste Water. USA: American Public Health Association

4 Arinathan V, Mohan V R, John De Britto A (2003). Chemical composition of certain tribal pulses in South India. Int J Food Sci Nutr, 54: 209-217

5 Arora R K, Chandel K P S, Joshi B S, Pant K C (1980). Rice bean: tribal pulse of eastern India. Econ Bot, 34: 260-263

6 Arun A B, Sridhar K R, Raviraja N S, Schmidt E, Jung K (2003). Nutritional and antinutritional components of seeds of Canavalia spp. from the west coast sand dunes of India. Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 58: 1-13

7 Basha S M M, Cherry J P, Young C T (1976). Changes in free amino acid, carbohydrates and proteins of maturing seeds from various pea nut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars. Cereal Chemistry, 53: 586-597

8 Baudoin J P, Maquet A (1999). Improvement of protein and amino acid content in seeds of food legumes: a case study in Phaseolus. Biotechnology, Agronomy, Society and Environment, 3: 220-224

9 Bender A E, Doel B H (1957). Biological evaluation of proteins; a new aspect. Br J Nutr, 11: 140-148

10 Bhagya B, Sridhar K R, Arun A B (2005). Diversity of legumes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the coastal sand dunes of southwest coast of India. International Journal of Forest Usufructs Management, 6: 1-18

11 Bhagya B, Sridhar K R, Raviraja N S, Young C C, Arun A B (2009). Nutritional and biological qualities of the ripened beans of Canavalia maritima from the coastal sand dunes of India. C R Biol, 332: 25-33

12 Bhat R, Karim A A (2009). Exploring the nutritional potential of wild and underutilized legumes. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 8: 305-331

13 Bhat R, Sridhar K R, Bhushan B (2007). Free radicals in velvet bean seeds (Mucuna pruriens L. DC.) and their status after γ-irradiation and conventional processing. LWT- Food Science and Technology, 40: 1570-1577

14 Brand W A, Tegtmeyer A R, Hilkert A (1994). Compound-specific isotope analysis: extending towards ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ¹³C/¹²C. Org Geochem, 21: 585-594

15 Burns R E (1971). Methods for estimation of tannins in grain, Sorghum. Agron J, 63: 511-512

16 Chan C W, Phillips R D (1994). Amino acid composition and subunit constitution of protein fractions from cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) seeds. J Agric Food Chem, 42: 1857-1860

17 Chick H, Hutchinson J C D, Jackson H M (1935). The biological value of proteins: Further investigation of the balance sheet method. Biochem J, 29: 1702-1711

18 D’Cunha M, Sridhar K R, Bhat R (2009). Nutritional quality of germinated seeds of Canavalia maritima of coastal sand dunes. In: Bellinghouse V C, ed. Food Processing: Methods, Techniques and Trends. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc., 363-384

19 De Oliveira J T A, Pusztai A, Grant G (1988). Changes in organs and tissues induced by feeding of purified kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) lectin. Nutr Res, 8: 943-947

20 Derbyshire E, Wright D J, Boulter D (1976). Legumin and vicilin, storage proteins of legume seeds. Phytochemistry, 15: 3-24

21 Eggum B D (1970). Improving Plant Protein by Nuclear Techniques. Vienna: IAEA

22 FAO-WHO-UNU (1985). Energy and Protein Requirements. Geneva: WHO Tech Rep Ser # 724

23 Garces R, Mancha M (1993). One-step lipid extraction and fatty acid methyl esters preparation from fresh plant tissue. Annals of Biochemistry, 211: 139-143

24 Gordon L K (1981). A reliable method for repetitively bleeding rabbits from the central artery of the ear. J Immunol Methods, 44: 241-245

25 Gunjatkar N, Vartak V D (1982). Enumeration of wild legumes from Pune District, Maharashtra. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany, 3: 1-9

26 Hankins C N, Kindinger J I, Shannon L M (1980). Legume alpha-galactosidases which have hemagglutinin properties. Plant Physiol, 65: 618-622

27 Hofmann D, Gehre M, Jung K (2003). Sample preparation techniques for the determination of natural ¹⁵N/¹⁴N variations in amino acids by gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 39: 233-244

28 Hofmann D, Jung K, Bender J, Gehre M, Schüürmann G (1997). Using natural isotope variations of nitrogen in plants as an early indicator of air pollution stress. J Mass Spectrom, 32: 855-863

29 Humphries E C (1956). Mineral composition and ash analysis. In: Peach K, Tracey M V, eds. Modern Methods of Plant Analysis, Volume 1. Berlin: Springer, 468-502

30 Jain S K (2000). Human aspects of plant diversity. Economic Botany, 54: 459-470

31 Kakade M L, Rackis J J, McGhee J E, Puski G (1974). Determination of trypsin inhibitor activity of soy products: a collaborative analysis of an improved procedure. Cereal Chemistry, 51: 376-382

32 Laurena A C, Rodriguez F M, Sabino N G, Zamora A F, Mendoza E M (1991). Amino acid composition, relative nutritive value and in vitro protein digestibility of several Philippine indigenous legumes. Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 41: 59-68

33 Liener I E (1958). Processed Plant Protein Foodstuffs. New York: Academic Press, 79-129

34 Livsmedelsverk S (1988). Energi och näringsämnen. Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish Food Administration

35 Makkar H P S, Aderibige A O, Becker K (1998). Comparative evaluation of non-toxic and toxic varieties of Jatropha curcas for chemical composition, digestibility, protein degradability and toxic factors. Food Chem, 62: 207-215

36 Morrison A B (1964). Some aspects of the nutritive value of protein. In: Sohults H W, Anglameir A F, eds. Symposium on Foods, Protein and Their Reaction. New York: The AVI. Publishing Co

37 Müller H G, Tobin G (1980). Nutrition and Food Processing. London: Croom Helm Ltd

38 Nielsen S S, Deshpande S S, Hermodson M A, Scott M P (1988). Comparative digestibility of legume storage proteins. J Agric Food Chem, 36: 896-902

39 NRC-NAS (1989). Recommended Dietary Allowances. Washington DC: National Academic Press

40 Nwokolo E (1987). Nutritional evaluation of pigeon pea meal. Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 37: 283-290

41 Oliveira J T A, Vasconcelos I M, Gondim M J, L, Cavada B S, Moreira R A, Santos C F, Moreira L I M (1994). Canavalia brasiliensis seeds. Protein quality and nutritional implications of dietary lectin. J Sci Food Agric, 64: 417-424

42 Osborne D R, Voogt P (1978). The Analysis of Nutrients in Food. New York: Academic Press, 239-240

43 Pellet P L, Young V R (1980). Nutritional evaluation of protein foods. Food and Nutrition Bulletin (Suppl 4), United Nations University

44 Platt B S, Miller D S, Payre P R (1961). Protein values of human foods. In: Brock J F, ed. Recent Advance in Human Nutrition. Boston: Brown and Co,351-358

45 Roe J H (1954). Chemical determination of ascorbic, dehydroascorbic and Diketogluconic acids. In: Glick D, ed. Methods of Biochemical Analysis. New York: InterScience Publishers, 115-139

46 Rosset J, Baerlocher F, Oertli J J (1982). Decomposition of conifer needles and deciduous leaves in two Black Forest and two Swiss Jura streams. Int Rev Gesamten Hydrobiol, 67: 695-711

47 Salunkhe D K, Kadam S S, Chavan J K (1985). Post harvest Biotechnology of Food Legumes. Boca Raton: CRC Press

48 Seena S, Sridhar K R (2006). Nutritional and microbiological features of little known legumes, Canavalia cathartica Thouars and C. maritima Thouars of the southwest coast of India. Current Science, 90: 1638-1650

49 Sharma S K, Brahmi P, Rana M K (2010). India’s agri-horticultural diversity: conserving our biological heritage. Biotech News, 5: 78-82

50 Shemer M, Perkins E G (1975). Degradation of methionine in heated soybean protein and the formation of β-methyl mercaptopropionaldehyde. J Agric Food Chem, 23: 201-204

51 Siddhuraju P, Becker K, Makkar H P S (2000). Studies on the nutritional composition and antinutritional factors of three different germplasm seed materials of an under-utilized tropical legume, Mucuna pruriens var. utilis. J Agric Food Chem, 48: 6048-6060

52 Siddhuraju P, Becker K, Makkar H P S (2002). Chemical composition, protein fractionation, essential amino acid potential and antimetabolic constituents of an unconventional legume, Gila bean (Entada phaseoloides Merrill) seed kernel. J Sci Food Agric, 82: 192-202

53 Smartt J (1990). Grain Legumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

54 StatSoft (2008). Statistica, Version 8. Oklahoma: StatSoft

55 Talwar G P, Srivastava L M, Mudgil K D (1989). Textbook of Biochemistry and Human Biology. India: Prentice Hall of India Private Ltd

56 USDA (1999). Nutrient Data Base for Standard Reference Release # 13, Food Group 20: Cereal Grains and Pasta. USA

57 Vadivel V, Pugalenthi M (2007). Biological value and protein quality of raw and processed seeds of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis. Livestock Research for Rural Development19: http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd19/7/vadi19097.htm

58 Vadivel V, Pugalenthi M, Megha S (2008). Biological evaluation of protein quality of raw and processed seeds of gila bean (Entada scandens Benth.). Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems, 8: 125-133

59 Viswanathan M B, Thangadurai D, Ramesh N (2001). Biochemical and nutritional evaluation of Neonotonia wightii (Wight & Arn.) Lackey (Fabaceae). Food Chem, 75: 275-279

60 Viswanathan M B, Thangadurai D, Tamil Vendan K, Ramesh N (1999). Chemical analysis and nutritional assessment of Teramnus labialis (L.) Spreng. (Fabaceae). Plant Foods Hum Nutr, 54: 345-352

61 Walker A F, Kochhar N (1983). Effect of processing including domestic cooking on nutritional quality of legumes. Proc Nutr Soc, 21: 41-48