Legumes Flashcards
What is the second most important crop family? How many species?
- Fabaceae
- Huge family w/ over 16,000 species
What is the fruit type of Fabaceae?
- Legume
- Single carpel ovary splits along 2 opposite margins (i.e. pea pod, peanut shell)
Pulse
- Dry legume seeds used for food
- Amongst oldest food crops
What was the UN year of the pulse?
- 2016
- Trying to promote pulses since they are an excellent food source
Why are pulses an excellent food source?
- High protein and oil content
- Easy to harvest and story
- Highest protein level in food plants, comparable to meats
Why are pulses important for the soil?
- Root association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria
Rhizobium
- Bacteria that can convert atmospheric nitrogen to form usable by plants (ammonia)
- Found in root nodules (including on legumes)
How does nitrogen fixing bacteria work?
- Roots secrete chemicals to stimulate bacteria
- Bacterial chemicals instigate formation of ‘channel’ to enter root
- Inside root bacteria induce nodule formation
- Symbiotic relationship
- Ammonia formed enters plant metabolic pathways
What is the benefit of having nitrogen-fixing bacteria for the plant?
- Allows plant to make more proteins
- Able to grow in ‘poor’ soils b/c nitrogen is often limiting for plants
Why rotate crops?
- Growing legumes can replenish soil nitrogen consumed by other crops
- Can regrow other crops after legumes with the enriched soil w/ less fertilizer
What is a main component of agricultural fertilizer? How much of global total primary energy consumption does it account for? What type and how much greenhouse gas results from this type of agriculture?
- Nitrogen is main component
- Industrial ammonia accounts for 1.5% of total global primary energy consumption
- Greater than 30% of DiNitrogen Oxide (N2O) results from agriculture
What was an important result on health implications from a study on pulses?
- Studied and controlled diet of elderly people in 5 countries
- Found eating legumes/pulses had most impact for life longevity out of 7 food groups
- Fish was second
Important pulses:
- Beans
- Peas
- Soy Beans
- Peanut
- Lentil
- Chickpea
Beans
- Grow worldwide
- Common types mostly Phaseolus vulgaris
- Includes green beans, kidney, lima, navy, pinto
What is the most consumed legume in the US?
Kidney bean
Peas
- Temperate climates
- Green, black-eyed peas, split peas, garbanzo beans, lentils
How much of world pea and lentil production does Canada account for?
- 32% of world pea production
- 38.5% of world lentil production
- Worlds largest exporter of peas and lentils, among top 5 for bean exports
Soy Bean
- Glycine max
- Contains phytoestrogens
- Native to NE China
- Most important legume in world
- Eaten many ways
- Prominent in diet of China, Japan, Korea
What is the protein, oil, and world oil consumption of soy bean?
- Highest protein content (34%)
- High oil content (27%)
- Accounts for 27% of world oil consumption
Why can soy bean not be eaten raw?
- Contains trypsin inhibitors
- Disrupts protein digestion
- Inactivated by heat, must be cooked
What are some food types from soy?
- Soy milk, dairy replacement in western foods
- Tofu variations
- Soy lecithin, fatty substance commonly added to processed foods as emulsifier
Tofu
- Coagulated soy protein
Soy production, who produces, what is it used for?
- Expanded 10-fold since 60’s
- US, Brazil, Argentina, and China have 85% of world production
- Approx. 85% of global crop is crushed for oil and meal
- Approx. 50% grown in US feed livestock (w/ gov’t subsidy)
Peanut
- Arachis hypogea
- Very high fat content, 45%, extracted for oil
- Staple food is some countries
How does the peanut plant grow?
- Flower stalks curve down after fertilization
- Ovary pushed into the soil
- Fruit matures underground
Lentil
- Lens culinaris
- 25% protein, easier to digest among pulses
- High drought tolerance
- Prevalent in diet in India
Chickpea
- Garbanzo, Cicer arietinum
- Need warmer climate
- Frequent part of diet in Middle East, Mediterranean, India, Mexico
