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Global Production, Trade, Processing and Nutritional Profile of Dry Beans and Other Pulses

Muhammad Siddiq Mark A. Uebersax and Farihah Siddiq

• Introduction
  • History and origin
• Production and trade
  • Global production and trade
  • US production and trade
• Consumption trends of dry beans
• Dry beans and other pulses as a diverse food resource
  • Traditional utilization
  • Value-added processing and products
• Nutritional profile and health benefits
  • Nutritional profile
  • Health benefits
  • Beans and pulses use in weaning foods
• Constraints to utilization of beans and other pulses
• Legumes and sustainability of agricultural systems
• Beans and other pulses in world food security
  • Dry beans in food aid programs
• Summary
• References

INTRODUCTION

Legumes (dry beans and other pulses) occupy an important place in human nutrition, especially among the low-income groups of people in developing countries. Although terms legumes, pulses, and beans are used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. For example, a legume refers to any plant from the Fabaceae family, including leaves, stems, and pods, while edible seeds from the legume plant are called pulses, which include beans, cowpeas, chickpeas, lentils, and peas, to name a few (HSPH 2020; Perera et al. 2020). Food legumes have significant importance in human diet and animal feed worldwide and occupy an important place in the global food supply chain besides promoting sustainable agricultural production systems (Pratap et al. 2021).

Legumes typically have pea-blossom type flowers, herbaceous to woody stems, a generally well-defined taproot, nitrogen-assimilating bacteria within nodules associated with the fibrous root system, bivalved seeds in varying numbers borne in single-celled pods that readily separate into halves at maturity, an annual lifecycle, and grow throughout the world from the tropics to high mountainous regions (Hardenburg 1927). Legume plants serve as hosts for nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium) through symbiotic colonization within nodules that develop among the plant root system. Thus, legume crops are soil nutrient enhancers that build soil nitrogen levels through suitable crop rotations of legumes with non-nitrogen fixing cereal grains (Bliss 1993; Martinez-Romero 2003).

Dry beans and other pulses are a good source of protein (significantly higher than that of cereals), dietary fiber, starch, minerals, and vitamins (Kutos et al. 2002; Hayat et al. 2014; Kamboj and Nanda 2018). They are a staple food and are a low-cost source of protein in developing countries where protein energy malnutrition (PEM) is prevalent (Van Heerden and Schonfeldt 2004). The inclusion of pulses in the daily diet has many beneficial physiological effects in controlling and preventing various metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, and colon cancer (Tharanathan and Mahadevamma 2003). Further, pulses belong to the group that elicits the lowest blood glucose response and contain considerable contents of phenolic compounds. The role of legumes as therapeutic agents in the diets of persons suffering from metabolic disorders has gained a significant interest in recent years (Mudryj et al. 2014; Yao et al. 2020).

Figure 1.1 shows comparative nutritional benefits of dry beans versus cereal grains. Nutritionally, the higher content of protein and dietary fiber and lower content of carbohydrates and fat of legumes offer better dietary options and health benefits. In recent years, beans have been cited for imparting specific positive health potentiating responses (hypocholesteremic response, mitigation of diabetes and colonic cancer, and weight control) when properly positioned in the diet (Hayat et al. 2014; Clemente and Olias 2017; Kamboj et al. 2018; HSPH 2020).

Numerous factors influence utilization, including bean type and cultivar selection, cropping environment and systems, storage conditions and handling infrastructure, processing, and final product preparation. Further, nutrient content and bioavailability are dramatically influenced by these conditions. Antinutritional factors (trypsin inhibitors, lectins, and phytic acid) have long been recognized as concerns and require appropriate processing conditions to ameliorate adverse effects. However, it is noted that some of the antinutrients may have therapeutic value, e.g., tannins and phenolics (Uebersax et al. 1989; Sathe 2012).

Fig. 1.1. Nutritional benefits of dry beans versus cereal grains (data for dry beans is average of pinto, navy, red kidney, and black beans, and average of wheat, corn, sorghum, and oat for cereal grains).

Source: Based on data from USDA (2021).

Fig. 1.2. A selection of common dry beans and pulses. (For color detail, please see color plate section.)

Source: Original image by author, M.A. Uebersax.

Legume crops demonstrate global adaptability, genotypic and phenotypic diversity, and multiple means of preparation and dietary use. Figure 1.2 shows a selection of common dry beans and other pulses. The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is considered the most widely grown among more than 30 Phaseolus species described in the literature. It has undergone wide production distribution from its origins in Mexico, Central America, and the Andean region of South America. Beans have extensive domestication and cultivation and has been utilized in a variety of food preparations (Hidalgo 1988). Scientific (genus and species) and common names for various food legumes are:

• Phaseolus vulgaris L. (common bean, field bean, haricot)
• Vigna unguiculata L. (cowpea, black-eye pea, crowder pea)
• Cicer arietinum L. (chickpea, garbanzo, Bengal gram, gram, Chana)
• Lens culinaris Medik. (lentil, Masur)
• Vigna aureus (mung bean, green gram, golden gram)
• Cajanus cajan L. Millsp. (pigeon pea, Congo pea, red gram, Angola pea, yellow dhal)
• Phaseolus lunatus L. (lima bean, butter bean)
• Vicia faba L. (broad bean, faba bean, horse bean)
• Vigna aconitifolia Jacq. (moth bean, mat bean)
• Pisum arvense sativum L. (common or garden pea, pois, arveja, Alaska pea, muttar)
• Glycine max (L.) Merr. (soybean, soya, haba soya)

This chapter provides an overview of important aspects of the production and global trade of legumes, production and consumption trends, use as a diverse food resource, value-added products, nutritional and health significance, constraints to utilization, and the role of legumes in world food security.

History and origin

Beans may be called "the food of the ancients," with literature recording the cultivation of beans, lupins and lentils in the Nile Valley dating as early as 2000 BCE. Common beans originated in Latin America (high Andeas, Guatemala and Mexico) where its wild progenitor (P. vulgaris var. mexicanus and var. aborigenous) has a wide distribution ranging from northern Mexico to northwestern Argentina (Gepts 2001; Grigolo and Fioreze 2018). Phaseolus beans are recognized as an exclusive New World Crop of American origin despite their wide distribution worldwide. Secondary centers of diversification are East Africa and Europe, since the Phaseolus beans were introduced by Spaniards and Portuguese in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Angioi et al. 2010; Schumacher and Boland 2017). Beans have played a part in the superstitions, the politics, and the warfare of ancient peoples. Magistrates were elected in Greece and Rome by the casting of beans into helmets. Certain kinds have been credited with medicinal value (Hardenburg 1927).

Originally domesticated in Central and South America, dry beans moved northward through Mexico and spread across most of the United States. These beans were commonly grown with corn and sometimes squash (Schumacher and Boland 2017). The early Europeans, first in the New England States of the US, then generations later in the upper Midwest (Great Lakes region), found that the white pea bean and many other dry beans provided a fine staple for a subsistence diet. The settlers explored and adapted to growing dry beans that the native Indians apparently had never exploited. They traded their excess production to non-bean-growing neighbors for goods, services, or cash.

The Iroquois Indians grew a small, round pea bean (Indian bean) with corn and squash ("three sisters" cropping system); this bean later became known as the "navy bean" because of the large demand that developed for this bean for naval and marine food supply purposes.

PRODUCTION AND TRADE

Dry beans and pulses are grown widely in different regions of the world. Table 1.1 shows regional production of dry beans, cowpeas, and...