LAUSR

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is one of the oldest crops grown by men to supply high-protein seeds for human and animal nutrition which is known by variety of common names such field bean, broad bean, horse bean, tick bean, windsor bean, hava feve, baakla shim. This legume crop is an important food legume in China, Egypt, Italy, Brazil and Ethiopia, whereas in some of the countries like India it is one of the underutilized pulse crop which is mainly cultivated in few states of India on a limited scale and sold in limited quantities to local markets and thus it has never achieved a status of a commercial pulse crop. Faba bean as a plant food for human consumption provides a balanced diet of lysine-rich protein, carbohydrates, fibre, and good source of iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper, selenium, and many vitamins. Furthermore, faba bean has been attributed with certain medicinal values as it serves as source of levodopa, a natural precursor of dopamine that has potential use in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa was identified in the seedlings, pods and beans of the faba bean (Vicia faba) by Guggenheim.1 When taken orally, levodopa is absorbed into the blood stream and carried to the brain where it is converted into dopamine. On contrary, faba bean is also known for its high content of phenolic compounds for instance condensed tannins which serve to confer better suitability of the crop in undesirable external environments. However, much attention is now being placed on the antioxidant capacity of the flavonoids and the phenolics of this crop.2 However, a drawback to the more widespread use of the broad bean stems from its toxicity because it contains some antinutritional factors (ANFs) viz. condensed tannins, trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA), which are located in the testa; lectins, pyrimidine glucosides (vicin and convicine) which accumulate in the cotyledons; all of them negatively affect their digestibility and other nutritive quality. Condensed tannins (CTs) are one the most important ANFs located in the testa, which negatively affect their digestibility and other nutritive value. The flavan-3-ols are the monomers of condensed tannins (CTs, also known as proanthocyanidins PAs), which are widely found in seed coats, leaves, flowers, stems and other tissues throughout the plant kingdom.