Vicia (V.) ervilia, commonly termed as bitter vetch, produces grains belonging to legumes family. One of the factors limiting the usage of V. ervilia is the existence of large amounts of anti-nutritional factors in the grains thereof. Considering the importance of the anti-nutritional factors, the present study investigated the effect of different methods of soaking from V. ervilia grains on the reduction of antinutritional factors rates. All of the soaking methods were found considerably reducing the anti-nutritional factors rates in all treatments as compared to V. ervilia grain flour. It was also found out in the present study that alkaline treatment, provides for the highest reduction of hydrolysable and dense tannin, phenolic ingredients in contrast to the other methods. Moreover, considerable increase in canavanine ooze-out from V. ervilia was documented for aqueous and saline treatments. Among different treatments, the highest reduction in total phenolic compounds and tannins was observed in alkaline maceration, followed by acidic, aqueous and salt saline. Also the lowest amount of canavanine was observed in aqueous treatment and the highest amount in alkaline treatment. The results show that treatment method can be selected depending on the type of need to remove anti-nutritional compounds of V. ervilia seeds. So soaking in water and use of saline solutions is preferred to soaking in basic and acidic solutions for the latter damages to some nutrients under basic and acidic conditions.

The present study investigated the effect of using various protein isolates of Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd. (Bitter vetch; Family: Fabaceae) in formulating plant burgers on physicochemical, sensory and microbial properties of the resulting plant-based protein products. The results indicated that the plant-based protein products in the formulation of which protein isolates produced based on salt extraction methods were used, had higher rates of protein, fat and oil. On the contrary, they had lower rates of carbohydrate and moisture in contrast to the plant-based protein products formulated using protein isolates produced based on isoelectric precipitation methods. The reason for the high amount of fat and protein in these treatments can be attributed to the isolates’ production conditions, high amount of oil diffused from the product in contrast to low oil retention and absorption capacity and low level of the measured moisture in comparison with the high protein content. In the current century, due to the uneven human population growth as well as the limited growth of animal resources, the debate about protein deficiency is particularly important in developing societies. Efforts for finding abundant and cheap herbal sources of protein have led to various researches regarding the use of some such less-known legumes in developing countries. In this regard, different protein isolates of Vicia ervilia have been used in the formulation of vegetable burgers to produce a new, inexpensive and productive plant protein product in the food industry.