Prospects of underutilized food legumes in sustaining pulse needs in India-A review

Abstract

Exploring rate of global population led to fast depletion of natural resources. It has become primary importance in India like horse gram, khesari, rice bean, tepary bean, moth bean, adzuki bean, winged bean and jack bean diversify the current agricultural systems in order to achieve food security. About 45 legume crops have been reported to be taken as food source by around 550 tribal societies in India. Different underutilized legumes are cultivated. These underutilized legumes make an important contribution in the diet of the rural habitats particularly during adverse conditions like dry season, drought and famine. Most of the known underutilized legumes contain adequate quantities of essential amino acids, protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), essential minerals, vitamins and dietary fibers compared to other legumes, along with presence of some beneficial bioactive substances. Exploring underutilized legumes as a source of feed, food and pharmaceutically important compounds to provide primary data which can be applied to overcome malnutrition-associated complications and can be able in sustaining pulse needs in India.

Full text

Crop Res. 54 (3 & 4) : 82-88 (2019)
Printed in India
DOI : 10.31830/2454-1761.2019.014
Prospects of underutilized food legumes in sustaining pulse needs
in India–A review
JNANA BHARATI PALAI1,*, JAGADISH JENA2 AND SAGAR MAITRA3
1,3Department of Agronomy
M. S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture
Centurion University of Technology & Management
CUTM, Paralakhemundi-761 211 (Odisha), India
*(e-mail : jnana@cutm.ac.in)
(Received : May 29, 2018/Accepted : June 24, 2019)
ABSTRACT
Exploring rate of global population led to fast depletion of natural resources. It
has become primary importance in India like horse gram, khesari, rice bean, tepary bean,
moth bean, adzuki bean, winged bean and jack bean diversify the current agricultural
systems in order to achieve food security. About 45 legume crops have been reported to be
taken as food source by around 550 tribal societies in India. Different underutilized legumes
are cultivated. These underutilized legumes make an important contribution in the diet of
the rural habitats particularly during adverse conditions like dry season, drought and
famine. Most of the known underutilized legumes contain adequate quantities of essential
amino acids, protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), essential minerals, vitamins
and dietary fibers compared to other legumes, along with presence of some beneficial
bioactive substances. Exploring underutilized legumes as a source of feed, food and
pharmaceutically important compounds to provide primary data which can be applied to
overcome malnutrition-associated complications and can be able in sustaining pulse needs
in India.
Key words : Adverse conditions, global population, food security, pharmaceutically
important, underutilized legumes
2Department of Agronomy, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalya, Raipur-492 012 (Chhattisgarh), India.
INTRODUCTION
With accelerating population growth and
faster depletion of non-renewable natural
resources, it has emerged extremely important
for diversification of the present-day intensive
agriculture to meet out peculiar human needs
(Pugalenthi et al., 2005). Grain legumes are the
second prioritized crop group after cereals,
which provide a vital component of rationed
human diet since millennia (Bhadana et al.,
2013; Singh and Maiti, 2016; Kaur and Saini,
2018; Mishra et al., 2018) and identified as
second most relevant plant source for human
as well as animal dietetics (Bhatt and Karim,
2009). Underutilized legumes draw an eloquent
contribution to the dietary requirements of the
rural inhabitants particularly, during drought
and famine situations (Magbagbeola et al., 2010)
besides, in many instances, these are the life-
savers for thousands and millions of resource
scarce people in the territory where assuring
food and nutritional security is one of the
compelling problems, particularly in ancestral
subsistence farming activities (Haq, 2002). Now-
a-days, contemplation towards underutilized
legumes is increasing for booming new alternate
protein sources to meet the all time increasing
demand for vegetable proteins (Pugalenthi et al.,
2005). In prehistoric era, in various parts of
the planet earth, our ancestors started
cultivating few hundred of species out of
thousands available and domestication process
transformed them to crop plants through genetic
shift by rigorous selection. The number of plant
species used by people around the globe
considered to be only one third of the number
of species which generations of cultural diversity
around the globe have drawn upon to establish
crops that would meet dietary needs. Even if
India is considered to be the center of diversity
for some cultivated crops, the knowledge about
the genetic diversity of some important species
of local importance are still largely limited.

Leguminous family is the third largest
flowering plant family, consisting of nearly 650
genera and 20000 species (Doyle, 1994). There
are several protein rich edible legumes available
i. e. soybean, cowpea and others; but their rate
of consumption (Table 1) is quite higher than
production witnessed ever increased demand
(Ali and Kumar, 2000). The increasing interest
of people around the globe from animal based
protein diet to a vegetarian based protein diet
has also accelerated its demand. To meet out
this demand, legumes have been considered
as an effective substitute for protein source in
minimum cost (Famurewa and Raji, 2005).
Underutilized legumes in this regard have
considerable scope for food security, meeting
nutritional requirement and agricultural
development. These are an effective means for
crop diversification which can effectively
contribute to the agricultural sustainability and
overall improvement of a nation’s economy.
Many of the known underutilized legumes (such
as Mucunaspp., Canavaliaspp., Sesbania spp.,
Phaseolus spp., etc.) possess adequate amounts
of protein, essential amino acids,
polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), dietary
fiber, and essential minerals and vitamins
comparable to other common legumes, along
with the presence of beneficial bioactive
compounds (Table 2). Apart from this, these
plants are also adaptable to adverse
environmental conditions and can thrive under
extreme stress conditions (Amubode and
Fetuga, 1983; Sotelo et al., 1999; Bhat et al.,
2008). Keeping this in view, the present review
focuses mainly on the possibilities of exploring
underutilized legumes as a source of food, feed
and pharmaceutically valued compounds to
provide baseline data for overcoming
malnutrition-associated problems and in
sustaining pulse needs in India.
Potential of Underutilized Crops
Underutilized species have special features
Important in local consumption and
production systems : they are an integral part
of local culture, present in traditional food
preparations and are the focus of current
trends to revive culinary traditions.
Highly adapted to agro-ecological niches and
marginal areas
They have comparative advantages over
commodity crops because they have been
selected to withstand stressful conditions and
can be cultivated using low input and biological
techniques.
Table 1. Demand and supply balance sheet for pulses (lakh
tonnes) in India
Year Production Import Export Total availability
2010-11 182.41 26.99 2.08 211.48
2011-12 170.89 33.65 1.74 206.28
2012-13 183.43 38.39 2.02 223.84
2013-14 192.53 30.49 3.43 219.60
2014-15 171.52 45.85 2.22 215.20
2015-16 163.48 57.98 2.56 218.90
2016-17 224.01 66.09 1.37 288.70
Source : Annual Report 2016-17, Directorate of Pulses
Development, Govt. of India.
Table 2. Nutritive value (per 100 g) of underutilized legumes
Legumes Botanical names Protein Fat Carbohydrate Fibre
(g) (g) (g) (g)
Lathyrus pea Lathyrus sativus 28 1 47 2
Winged bean Psophocarpus tetragonolobus 30-40 15-20 35-45 6-7
Jack bean Canvalia ensiformis 29-30 50.77-54.28 7.34-9.9
Bambara groundnut Vigna subterranean 20 6-8 60 3-6
Kidney bean Phaseolus vulgaris 24 0.8 60.0 25.0
Faba bean Viciaf aba 26.12 1.53 58.59 25.0
Lima bean Phaseolus lunatus 19-25 1-2 70-75 4-6
Cowpea Vigna unguiculata 8.0 0.5 21.0 7.0
Horsegram Macrotyloma uniflorum 22 0.5 57.2 5.3
Rice bean Vigna umbellate 20.9 0.9 60.7 4.0
Moth bean Vigna aconitifolia 23 1.6 62 5.0
Velvet bean Mucuna pruriens 20.2-29.3 6.3-7.4 49.9-61.2 8.7-10.5
Adzuki beans Vigna angularis 20.0 0.5 6.0 13.0
Chickpea Cicer arietinum 19.0 6.0 61.0 17.0
A review on prospects of underutilized food legumes in India 83

Ignored by policy makers and excluded from
research and development agendas
Special efforts are needed to be given
for enhancing the improved crop management
practices during crop period and post-harvest
of underutilized legumes and studies on issues
of policies and marketability which are limiting
their use should be monitored.
Cultivated and utilized drawing on
indigenous knowledge
Cultivation and use can be enhanced by
using farmer-based knowledge and by
introducing innovative cultivation practices.
Unfortunately, processes such as urbanization
and changing farming methods are contributing
to the rapid erosion of traditional knowledge.
Supply of underutilized legume seeds is
characterized by fragile or non-exist
Efforts need to be made to provide
planting material to farmers in order to make
the cultivation of underutilized species more
feasible and sustainable over time.
Current scenario of pulse production and
future needs in India
India is the largest producer, largest
consumer and the largest importer of pulses
in the world. In India, pulses are grown in
around 24-26 million hectares of area
producing 17-19 million tonnes of pulses
annually. India accounts for over one-third of
the total world area and over 20% of total world
production. India primarily produces Bengal
gram (chickpeas), red gram (tur), lentil (masur),
greengram (mung) and blackgram (urd). In
India, pulses are cultivated on marginal lands
under rainfed conditions. Only 15% of the area
under pulses has assured irrigation. Because
of the high level of fluctuations in pulse
production (due to biotic and abiotic stress) and
prices (in the absence of an effective
government price support mechanism) farmers
are lacking interest on pulse cultivation even
after surge in wholesale price of pulses in recent
years. There has been significant increase in
pulse consumption during this decade nearly
around 50 g may be due to higher pulse
production and larger imports, mostly of dry
peas from Canada and Australia. The larger
import of pulses in recent years may be due to
increasing mismatch between production and
consumption. During 2012-13 (Apr-Mar), pulse
import reached a record 4.0 million tonnes an
increase of 0.5 million tonnes over 2011-12.
Despite being world’s largest producer of
pulses, only small exports of pulses are taking
place from India, both because of restrictions
on exports and the high domestic demand.
Per Capita Availability of Pulses in India
As a result of stagnant pulse production
and continuous increase in population, the per
capita availability of pulses has decreased
considerably. The per capita per day availability
of pulses in 1951 was 60 g that dwindled down
to a provisional level of 47.2 g in the year 2014.
The per capita per year availability shows the
same decreasing trend from 22.1 kg in 1951 to
17.2 kg in 2014. However, the increasing trend
showed during 2017 (P) both in per capita per
day (52.9 g) and per capita per year (19.3 kg).
(Annual Report, 2016-17).
Causes of Low Productivity of Pulses
Factors responsible for low productivity
per unit area and resources include :
•Between 1966-67 and 2012-13, area
under irrigation increased from 9 to
16% for pulses. Area under rainfed
pulses is around 84% where the soil is
thirst of water and hungry for nutrients.
•Drought and heat stress influence 50%
reduction in seed yield particularly in
arid and semi-arid regions of the
country.
•Soils growing pulses have high level of
salinity and alkalinity in semi-arid
tropics and Indo-Gangetic plains.
•Poor drainage leading to waterlogging
during rainy season in states of UP,
Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, MP
and Jharkhand causes substantial
yield losses in pigeonpea in particular.
•Farmers use their own saved seeds and
practically use no phosphatic fertilizers.
Green revolution pushed pulses
cultivation in marginal and sub-
marginal lands resulting in declining
productivity.
84 Palai, Jena and Maitra

•Pulses being rich in nitrogen and
phosphorus content are easy victims of
insects, pests and diseases which
severely reduce the productivity of
chickpea, pigeonpea and lentil.
•While small and marginal farmers more
often prefer to growing staple cereals
for home consumption, other farmers
prefer to growing cash crops on larger
area rather than pulses.
•Inability of small, marginal and tenant
farmers to access institutional credit
discourages them to purchase and use
seeds of high-yielding varieties,
phosphatic fertilizers and adopt
improved technology. In years to come,
extreme temperature under the impact
of recent global climate change is likely
to affect grain yield (Source :
indiamicrofinance.com).
Status of Underutilized Food Legume in
India
There are around 40 leguminous crops
belonging to genera, Acacia, Abrus, Atylosia,
Alysicarpus, Bauhinia, Canavalia, Cassia,
Dolichos, Erythrina, Entada, Indigofera, Lens,
Mucuna, Parkinsonia, Parkia, Phaseolus,
Prosopis, Pongamia, Sesbania, Tamarindus,
Vigna, Vicia and Xylia are known to be
consumed as food by as many as 550 tribal
communities settled all over India and account
for around 67.76 million of total Indian
population. Most of the underutilized food
legumes are spread over as wild species in
different agro-ecological regions of India. There
are 192 germplasms of wild legumes including
45 tribal pulses, which are reported to be found
in different agro-climatic regions of India.
Diversified Uses of Underutilized Legumes
• Adzuki beans : The dried seeds are
used for human food, either cooked whole or
made into meal, used in soups, cakes or
confectionary. Beans may be popped like corn,
used as a coffee substitute or as sugar candy.
Flour is used for making shampoos and face
creams. Adzuki bean seeds have medicinal
properties (Sacks, 1977). It is reported to be
used in the treatment of kidney trouble,
constipation, boils, etc. (Sacks, 1977; Phogat
and Sharma, 2000). The leaves of Adzuki beans
are said to be helpful in lowering fever. Adzuki
beans are rich source of soluble fiber, keeping
cholesterol level in a safer range, which lowers
the risk of heart disease. Adzuki beans have
soluble fibers which help in decreasing the
metabolism rate of the bean’s carbohydrates,
which prevent rise in blood sugar levels after
taking meals. Adzuki bean is a rich source of
molybdenum, that helps in liver detoxification
producing sulfite oxidase enzyme.
• Khesari : The seeds are boiled and
consumed as a pulse. Plants are valued for
green manure but have weedy tendencies.
Mixed with oil cake and salts, seeds are used
as a nutritive feed for poultry and livestock.
Primarily grasspea is cultivated as a cold
weather forage crop (Duke, 1981). The seeds
are used locally in homeopathic medicine.
• Moth bean : Whole or split moth bean
seeds can be cooked or fried; pods can be eaten
after cooked. Moth bean seeds can help treating
fever. This crop can also be used as forage for
animals. Moth bean is a multi-purpose crop
and can be used in the preparation of Papad,
Bhujia, Vada, etc. (Brink and Jansen, 2006).
• Rice bean : Rice bean is most often
served as a dal. Apart from various recipes for
dal soups and sauces, pulses are also used in
a number of other ways; whole or cooked or
roasted, as flour, or ground to make various
deep fried dishes or snacks. The enzyme
inhibiting anti-nutritional or toxic factors
appears to be low in rice bean as found in other
legumes. Rice bean is valuable as a high class
fodder which is known to increase milk
production in livestock. It is immune to Yellow
Mosaic Virus (YMV), a prominent disease in
greengram and blackgram and thus can easily
replace greengram. Protein in rice bean is rich
in limiting amino acids methionine and
tryptophan (Carvalho and Vieria, 1996).
••
••
• Tepary bean : Tepary beans are an
ingredient in the snacks by famous Indian
Haldiram’s ‘bhujia’ and Punjabi Tadka. Tepary
bean contains lectin toxins, which may be
useful in chemotherapy for treating cancer
(Mall, 2017).
• Broad bean : Broad beans are
generally consumed during vegetative stage
when the beans are tender. It can also be eaten
as pulse, if harvested after maturity. The tender
pods and the young leaves can also be cooked
eaten. Roasted seeds are eaten like peanuts.
A review on prospects of underutilized food legumes in India 85

Broad beans are rich source of L-dopa, which
is used medically in the treatment of
Parkinson’s disease and it also controls
hypertension (Rabey et al., 1993).
• Winged bean : Pods can be eaten
unripe, cooked or raw vegetable. This bean has
famously called the “one species supermarket”
because all of the plant parts of this bean are
edible. Roots can be eaten raw or cooked.
Tuberous roots of winged bean contain about
20% protein, which is much higher than other
edible roots. Leaves and flowers of winged bean
also contain high amount of protein (10-15%)
and the seeds contain about 35% protein and
18% oil. Winged bean can be consumed as bean
curd and nut in snacks. Its milk has similar
characteristics as soymilk without the same
bean-rich flavour. Winged bean has also been
reported as an effective remedy for smallpox.
The seeds also contain high amounts of edible
oil (15-20%) (Reddy, 2019).
• Horsegram : Seeds are used as pulse
and are useful for curing bronchial asthma,
piles, abdominal lump, hiccup in causing and
regulating perspiration. Traditional texts
describe its use as medicine for curing kidney
stones, asthma, bronchitis, leucoderma,
urinary discharges, heart diseases and piles
(Bharatiya et al., 2015).
• Velvet bean : Velvet beans have been
roasted and ground to make a coffee substitute
for decades and is widely known as Nescafe
for this reason. The bean is cooked as a
vegetable. The seed has been used internally
for Parkinson’s disease, edema, impotence,
intestinal gas and worms. It is considered a
diuretic, nerve tonic and aphrodisiac.
Externally it is applied to ulcers. Velvet bean
has a long history of use in Indian Ayurvedic
medicine, where it is used for worms, dysentery,
diarrhea, snakebite, cough, tuberculosis,
impotence, rheumatic disorders, muscular
pain, diabetes and cancer. In India, it is
considered an aphrodisiac, uterine stimulant,
nerve tonic, diuretic, and blood purifier
(Lampariello et al., 2011).
Performance of Underutilized Legumes in
Adverse Condition
• Winged bean : It grows well in soils
with low organic matter and in sandy loams or
heavy clays. The winged bean also displays
some drought tolerance. The winged bean
withstands high temperatures but almost never
survives frost (agropedia.com).
• Rice bean : It is best adapted to
drought-prone sloping areas and flat rainfed
areas. It is grown preferably in marginal lands
(Khadka and Acharya, 2009). This crop is also
tolerant to waterlogging condition at maximum
vegetative stage. The crop can be grown in soil
having lower residual fertility, moisture and
with limited resource.
• Moth bean : Moth bean can be
successfully cultivated on well drained sandy
plains and sand dunes with poor organic matter
and poor fertility in northern-western mid
regions of India. It grows well in dry habitats
(Kumar, 2002).
• Adzuki beans : Seeds do well during
frost free periods with cool nights. The plant is
reported to be somewhat drought resistant
(Myers, 1998).
• Jack bean : This legume can be grown
in arid and semi-arid regions predominated
with marginal soils, which may not be suitable
for common legumes i. e. Phaseolus sp. and
vigna sp. Having deep penetrating root system,
it can withstand very dry condition (Filhol et
al., 2011).
• Khesari : Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus)
is both a drought and flood tolerant legume
crop. In Bangladesh and India, the ability of
grass pea to establish in water-logged soil
makes it an ideal cover crop in paddy rice.
Because of its tolerance to harsh agro-climatic
conditions, it gives a good crop output and also
provides a source of protein when other crops
have been destroyed by drought and other
natural disasters such as flooding (Campbell
et al., 1994).
Some Research Findings for more Adaption
of these Crops
••
••
• Perennial wild relatives of chickpea
as potential sources of resistance to
Helicoverpa armigera : Sharma et al. (2006)
reviewed damage rating of wild species of
chickpea i. e. Cicer microphyllum (2.0) and Cicer
canariense (3.7) are much less than cultivated
Cicer arietinum (7.2).
• Cicer microphyllum, a wonder plant
for abiotic stress management : Adapted to
cold desert during winter months, which fall
sometimes below -30°C at Leh and -70°C at
Dras (Singh, 2014).
86 Palai, Jena and Maitra

• Metallothione like gene from Cicer
microphyllum is regulated by multiple
abiotic stresses : A complementary DNA
(cDNA) encoding metallothionein like protein
has been identified from a cold induced
subtraction cDNA library from C. microphyllum
(Singh et al., 2010).
CONCLUSION
Evident from the ongoing research
worldwide, and with the current database, it
concludes that these crops possess high
nutritional value. These legumes should be
explored further for overcoming protein-energy
malnutrition and can meet the pulse needs in
India. Further research is needed to explore
the potential of underutilized food legumes.
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