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

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 pressurecooking of tender pods of C. maritima improved the nutritional qualities by lowering the hemagglutinin activity.