Legumes and common beans in sustainable diets: nutritional quality, environmental benefits, spread and use in food preparations.

In recent decades, scarcity of available resources, population growth and the widening in the consumption of processed foods and of animal origin have made the current food system unsustainable. High-income countries have shifted towards food consumption patterns which is causing an increasingly process of environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, with the increased incidence of malnutrition due to excess (obesity and non-communicable disease) and due to chronic food deprivation. An urgent challenge is, therefore, to move towards more healthy and sustainable eating choices and reorientating food production and distribution to obtain a human and planetary health benefit. In this regard, legumes represent a less expensive source of nutrients for low-income countries, and a sustainable healthier option than animal-based proteins in developed countries. Although legumes are the basis of many traditional dishes worldwide, and in recent years they have also been used in the formulation of new food products, their consumption is still scarce. Common beans, which are among the most consumed pulses worldwide, have been the focus of many studies to boost their nutritional properties, to find strategies to facilitate cultivation under biotic/abiotic stress, to increase yield, reduce antinutrients contents and rise the micronutrient level. The versatility of beans could be the key for the increase of their consumption, as it allows to include them in a vast range of food preparations, to create new formulations and to reinvent traditional legume-based recipes with optimal nutritional healthy characteristics.

Improving the antinutritional profiles of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) moderately impacts carotenoid bioaccessibility but not mineral solubility.

Common beans are a common staple food with valuable nutritional qualities, but their high contents in antinutritional factors (ANFs) can decrease the bioavailability of (i) fat-soluble micronutrients including carotenoids and (ii) minerals. Our objective was to select ANF-poor bean lines that would not interfere with carotenoid and mineral bioavailability. To achieve this objective, seeds of commercial and experimental Phaseolus vulgaris L. bean lines were produced for 2 years and the bean's content in ANFs (saponins, phytates, tannins, total polyphenols) was assessed. We then measured carotenoid bioaccessibility and mineral solubility (i.e. the fraction of carotenoid and mineral that transfer into the aqueous phase of the digesta and is therefore absorbable) from prepared beans using in vitro digestion. All beans contained at least 200 mg/100 g of saponins and 2.44 mg/100 g tannins. The low phytic acid (lpa) lines, lpa1 and lpa12 exhibited lower phytate levels (≈ - 80%, p = 0.007 and p = 0.02) than their control BAT-93. However, this decrease had no significant impact on mineral solubility. HP5/1 (lpa + phaseolin and lectin PHA-E free) bean line, induced an improvement in carotenoid bioaccessibility (i.e., + 38%, p = 0.02, and + 32%, p = 0.005, for phytofluene bioaccessibility in 2021 and 2022, respectively). We conclude that decrease in the phytate bean content should thus likely be associated to decreases in other ANFs such as tannins or polyphenols to lead to significant improvement of micronutrient bioaccessibility.

In order to lower the antinutritional activity of serine protease inhibitors, we need to understand their role in seed development.

Proteases, including serine proteases, are involved in the entire life cycle of plants. Proteases are controlled by protease inhibitors (PI) to limit any uncontrolled or harmful protease activity. The role of PIs in biotic and abiotic stress tolerance is well documented, however their role in various other plant processes has not been fully elucidated. Seed development is one such area that lack detailed work on the function of PIs despite the fact that this is a key process in the life cycle of the plant. Serine protease inhibitors (SPI) such as the Bowman-Birk inhibitors and Kunitz-type inhibitors, are abundant in legume seeds and act as antinutrients in humans and animals. Their role in seed development is not fully understood and present an interesting research target. Whether lowering the levels and activity of PIs, in order to lower the anti-nutrient levels in seed will affect the development of viable seed, remains an important question. Studies on the function of SPI in seed development are therefore required. In this Perspective paper, we provide an overview on the current knowledge of seed storage proteins, their degradation as well as on the serine protease-SPI system in seeds and what is known about the consequences when this system is modified. We discuss areas that require investigation. This includes the identification of seed specific SPIs; screening of germplasms, to identify plants with low seed inhibitor content, establishing serine protease-SPI ratios and lastly a focus on molecular techniques that can be used to modify seed SPI activity.

Antinutritional factors, nutritional improvement, and future food use of common beans: A perspective.

Common bean seeds are an excellent source of protein as well as of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and bioactive compounds reducing, when in the diet, the risks of diseases. The presence of bioactive compounds with antinutritional properties (e.g., phytic acid, lectins, raffinosaccharides, protease inhibitors) limits, however, the bean's nutritional value and its wider use in food preparations. In the last decades, concerted efforts have been, therefore, made to develop new common bean genotypes with reduced antinutritional compounds by exploiting the natural genetic variability of common bean and also applying induced mutagenesis. However, possible negative, or positive, pleiotropic effects due to these modifications, in terms of plant performance in response to stresses or in the resulting technological properties of the developed mutant genotypes, have yet not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of the perspective paper is to first highlight the current advances, which have been already made in mutant bean characterization. A view will be further provided on future research directions to specifically explore further advantages and disadvantages of these bean mutants, their potential use in innovative foods and representing a valuable genetic reservoir of combinations to assess the true functional role of specific seed bioactive components directly in the food matrix.

Antioxidant Properties of Four Commonly Consumed Popular Italian Dishes.

Four popular dishes belonging to Italian cuisine and widely consumed in the country were experimentally prepared in a dedicated lab-kitchen following a validated and standardized protocol. This study provides their antioxidant properties evaluating the contribution of extractable and non-extractable bioactive compounds, and identifying the assessment of interactions between their natural active compounds and the food matrix. Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values in aqueous-organic extract ranged from the highest antioxidant activity in torta di mele (10.72 µmol/g d.m.) to that in besciamella (2.47 µmol/g d.m.); in residue, pasta alla carbonara reached the highest value (73.83 µmol/g d.m.) following by that in pasta alla amatriciana (68.64 µmol/g d.m.). Total polyphenol content (TPC) ranged in aqueous-organic extracts between 36.50 and 64.28 mg/100 g d.m. and in residue from 425.84 to 1747.35 mg/100 g d.m. Our findings may contribute to the updating of the Italian Food Composition Database, by providing for the first time a value for the antioxidant properties. This could contribute to encourage the consumption of recipes rich in key nutrients and bioactive molecules. This information is useful and important for determining the association between diet and a healthy status.

Dietary Lignans: Definition, Description and Research Trends in Databases Development.

The study aims to communicate the current status regarding the development and management of the databases on dietary lignans; within the phytochemicals, the class of the lignan compounds is of increasing interest because of their potential beneficial properties, i.e., anticancerogenic, antioxidant, estrogenic, and antiestrogenic activities. Furthermore, an introductory overview of the main characteristics of the lignans is described here. In addition to the importance of the general databases, the role and function of a food composition database is explained. The occurrence of lignans in food groups is described; the initial construction of the first lignan databases and their inclusion in harmonized databases at national and/or European level is presented. In this context, some examples of utilization of specific databases to evaluate the intake of lignans are reported and described.

From Plant Compounds to Botanicals and Back: A Current Snapshot.

This work aims at giving an updated picture of the strict interaction between main plant biologically active compounds and botanicals. The main features of the emerging class of dietary supplements, the botanicals, are highlighted. Focus is also on the definition of actual possibilities of study approach and research strategies. Examples of innovative directions are given: assessment of interaction of bioactive compounds, chemometrics and the new goal of biorefineries. Current models of existing databases, such as plant metabolic pathways, food composition, bioactive compounds, dietary supplements, and dietary markers, are described as usable tools for health research. The need for categorization of botanicals as well as for the implementation of specific and dedicated databases emerged, based on both analytical data and collected data taken from literature throughout a harmonized and standardized approach for the evaluation of an adequate dietary intake.

Food Composition Databases: Considerations about Complex Food Matrices.

Nowadays, many countries have their own national Food Composition Databases, whose continuous updating allows the inclusion of a large number of foods, reflecting the food habits of the population and the growing number of foods on the market in the best way possible. Therefore, particular attention should be directed to the study not only of individual foods or food components but also of the nutritional characteristics of dishes, meals and diets, as they are really consumed. Recently, a reviewed sensitivity in Europe towards the implementation of standardized procedures for generating reliable composition data for composite dishes has been carried out. Although direct chemical analysis is the most accurate method to determine food composition, the nutrient content of complex matrices and composite dishes is often calculated from the nutrient contents of the individual ingredients, considering the different thermal treatments and using some preparation factors. In this context, this paper aims to give an updated picture on Food Composition Databases; in particular, their application regarding complex matrices is examined together with the need to optimize their calculated nutritional values. Results obtained by this calculation should almost always be observed as approximations.

Nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of traditional Italian dishes.

This work aims at evaluating the main nutrients (proximate, minerals), their contribution for Dietary Reference Values in Italian population, and the antioxidant properties of some popular dishes prepared in a dedicated lab-kitchen: spaghetti alle vongole, pomodori al riso, gateau di patate, carciofi alla romana, pan di Spagna. Results showed that nutrient contents and energy value varied extensively because of the variety and the nature of ingredients in the analyzed dishes, and thus defined different daily nutrient intakes and their association with health effects. A serving portion of either spaghetti alle vongole or carciofi alla romana showed to contribute to the daily nutritional recommendations respectively, with an appreciable percentage of available carbohydrates (30-22%) and a considerable content of dietary fibre (91%). Gateau di patate was particularly rich in calcium (343mg), both contributing 34% of the recommended intake, in addition to appreciable content of phosphorus and zinc. With regards to spaghetti alle vongole, pomodori al riso, gateau di patate and pan di Spagna, extractable polyphenols contributed less than 15% to total antioxidant activity, and hydrolysable polyphenols give a major contribution; carciofi alla romana showed an inverse trend. Findings provide an important contribution to the update of Italian Food Composition Databases.