Faba Bean Case Study

Faba bean is an annual legume, which is able to grow in various climatic zones even without fertilizers. It can also be grown in crop rotations due to its ability to fix nitrogen symbiotically. Hence, it is regarded as an environmentally friendly legume crop. Faba bean belongs to the third largest angiosperm family Fabaceae, containing 740 genera and 19,400 species (Lewis et al. 2005; Basheer-Salimia 2014). It is classified among a subfamily Faboideae, tribe Vicieae and genus Vicia L. Faba bean is also known in English as broad bean, field bean, fava bean, horse bean or tick bean. Singh et al. (2013) reported that other names like Bakela (Ethiopia), Faveira (Portugal), Ful masri (Sudan), Feve (France), Yeshil Bakla (Turkey), Kala Matar and
2014). These proteins mostly consist of globulins (80%) and albumins (20%). The albumins contain protease inhibitors and lectins (Revilla 2015). Faba bean is rich in lysine (5.4-6.8%) and deficient in sulphur amino acids (0.6-1.0% methionine). Faba bean contains 51-68% of carbohydrates, including starch 41-53% (the main component), soluble sugar, and dietary fiber (Larralde and Martínez 1991; Vidal-Valverde et al. 1998; Guillon and Champ 2002; Revilla 2015). The carbohydrate components provide many health benefits, like starch exhibits a low glycemic index by slow glucose release into the blood stream, particularly beneficial for people with diabetes (Rizkalla et al. 2002), and dietary fiber has a positive effect on gastrointestinal health and decreasing blood cholesterol levels (Marlett et al. 2002). A crude fiber content in faba bean ranges from 5.0% to 8.5% with dietary fiber values of 15–30% depending on the seed variety (Chavan et al. 1989). The soluble sugar contains monosaccharides (ribose, glucose, galactose and fructose), disaccharides (sucrose and maltose), and mainly oligosaccharides, which belong to the α-galactoside group where galactose exists in an α-D-1,6-linkage. Galactosides derived from
2015). They include pyrimidine glycosides (vicine and convicine), condensed tannins, protease inhibitors (trypsin inhibitors), alkaloids, lectins, phytates, saponins, phenolic compounds, and α-galacto-oligosaccharides (Liener 1990; Sendberg 2002). Vicine and convicine, which are stored in the cotyledons of faba bean seeds, are glucopyranosides. It has been shown that active derivatives of vicine and convicine, divicine and isouramil, cause a disease known as favism, haemolytic anemia, in humans with a genetic deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) (Crépon et al. 2010). Based on the content of vicine-convicine, faba bean is distinguished into two types: high vicine-convicine cultivars and low vicine-convicine cultivars (Duc et al.