An Assessment of Variation for Nutritional and Non-nutritional Carbohydrates in Lentil Seeds (Lens culinaris)

The levels of the raffinose family of α-galactosides (raffinose, stachyose, verbascose and ciceritol) and of the nutritional carbohydrates (fructose, sucrose and starch) were determined in the seed of a range of lentil lines from germplasm collections and commercial Spanish cultivars. Significant levels of variation were found for all the measured characters, and particularly for the α-galactosides. The greatest variation was found in verbascose content, which ranged from about 1 % of the seed dry weight to undetectable amounts. The relationship between these chemical components and morphological seed characteristics was assessed. The only significant relationship between the different groups of characteristics was a positive correlation between the level of verbascose and the average seed weight for each genotype.     

Oligosaccharides in several Philippine indigenous food legumes: Determination,localization and removal

The oligosaccharide profile of raw mature seeds of seven different legumes indigenous to the Philippines was measured in 70% ethanol extracts of the seeds by thin layer chromatography using HPTLC plates and quantified by a densitometer. Based on the results, the legumes could be ranked according to decreasing oligosaccharide content or flatulence potential as follows: Sam-samping (Clitoria ternatea)>hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab)> sabawel (Mucuna pruriens)>lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus)>swordbean (Canavalia gladiata)>rice bean (Vigna umbellata)>jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis). Sam-samping had 4.79% total oligosaccharides and hyacinth bean or batao, 3.66%. A jack bean accession had 1.79% oligosaccharides.Simple processing methods were tested to detoxify the oligosaccharides. Soaking the batao seeds had no effect while boiling even resulted in a net 23–31% increase in the levels of raffinose, stachyose and verbascose. On the other hand, two min of dry roasting resulted in complete removal of oligosaccharides whereas germination resulted in about 30–40% decrease after 1 and 2 days, respectively.Part of MS thesis of the senior author.