LEGUME: COMPOSITION, PROTEIN EXTRACTION AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES. A REVIEW

Because of the high protein content and beneficial nutritional value, legumes (lupin, peas, beans, and soybeans) play an important role in human diet. Legumes provide energy, dietary fibre, protein, minerals and vitamins required for human health and endue well-balanced essential amino acid profiles when consumed with cereals and other foods rich in sulphur-containing amino acids and tryptophan. Some antinutritional compounds, found in legumes, can be toxic, unpalatable or indigestible, but their elimination can be achieved by selection of plant genotypes or through post-harvest processing. The production of legume protein concentrates or isolates is of growing interest to food industry because of their functional properties and ability to improve the nutritional quality of food products. For that, various techniques are used to extract protein concentrates / isolates with different features. Legume proteins have gained increasing importance because of desired functional properties, including gelling and emulsifying properties, and could be proposed as a potential supplement in a great number of food applications. This review provides an overview of the chemical composition of legumes (lupin, peas, beans, and soybeans), their antinutritional compounds, current and emerging techniques for producing their protein concentrates / isolates, and major functional properties. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ct.66.1.12355