ABSTRACT
Broad bean (faba bean, Vicia faba) has several types of health benefi ts and might be of value in treating conditions such as hypertension, heart failure, renal failure and liver cirrhosis (Vered et al., 1997); possesses antioxidant activity (Amarowicz et al., 2008); reduces total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (Macarulla et al., 2001); and reduces progression of colon cancer (Jordinson et al., 1999). Broad bean also contains some antinutritional factors like vicine and convicine, and has reduced bioavailability of an essential nutrient, zinc (Rubio et al., 1994). Mortuza et al. (2000) carried out investigations on protein quality of raw faba bean (V. faba minor) seed meal and its fractions using rats in two experiments. Two varieties of faba seeds, locally grown faba bean ‘Kalimattar’ or ‘black’ (KSM) (492 g/kg diet) and its exotic counterpart V. faba minor ‘white’ (VFW) obtained from International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) (540 g/kg diet). The pulverized cotyledons of Kalimattar (438 g/kg diet), hull (78 g/kg diet) as well as cotyledons of White faba bean (470 g/kg diet) and hull (82 g/kg diet) fractions were tested. All diets were made isocaloric and isonitrogenous, however, without addition of individual amino acids to the target requirements. Performance of rats fed on both locally grown Kalimattar and the exotic White V. faba minor-meal were inferior to those obtained from the rats fed on standard protein diet. The net protein utilization of rats fed on this seed meal was comparatively better than those
obtained from the White faba bean. Replacement of standard protein with cotyledons from either variety depressed food intake and protein utilization. This was due, in part, to the excretion of comparatively higher amount of nitrogen in feces. Inclusion of Kalimattar in the diet had no adverse effect on any variable studied as compared to the White faba bean, which imposes severe restriction on absorption of standard protein added to this diet. As a result, body weight gain, and net protein utilization values were signifi cantly lower than those obtained from Kalimattar. In conclusion, the locally grown faba bean ‘Kalimattar’ is better than that of the exotic ‘White’ cultivar and may contain less antinutritional substances.
