Molecular strategies to improve the nutritional quality of legume proteins.

Legume proteins are relatively deficient in the sulfur amino acids. Among the different strategies to increase the sulfur amino acid contents of legumes, we have chosen to increase the biosynthesis of endogenous, non-abundant sulfur-rich proteins we have identified in soybean seed. We identified and isolated an 8 kDa sulfur-rich protein from the albumin fraction of soybean seed. Subsequently, a cDNA designated Gm2S-1, has been isolated and characterized. The Gm2S-1 cDNA encodes a pre-proprotein that contains a signal peptide and a precursor protein that undergoes post-translational processing to yield the mature 8 kDa protein containing 7.8% methionine and 7.8% cysteine. The Gm2S-1 gene is an ideal candidate for overexpression to improve the nutritional quality of soybean and other legumes.

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) greater than hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab) greater than sabawel (Mucuna pruriens) greater than lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) greater than swordbean (Canavalia gladiata) greater than rice bean (Vigna umbellata) greater than 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.