A total of 125 accessions of one-flowered vetch (Vicia articulata Hornem.) mostly from the Iberian Peninsula have been analysed for total protein, L-canavanine and condensed tannins. It was observed a high variability in the composition: the protein content ranged from 18.20 to 30.07%, L-canavanine from 0.27 to 0.67%, and condensed tannins from 0.13 to 0.35%, which indicates a scarce domestication of the crop. The inclusion of the seeds into a diet to nonruminants should be limited to marginal percentages because of the contents of L-canavanine and it suggests that a reduction of this compound by breeding should be encouraged. The protein and the L-canavanine contents showed a low and positive significant correlation (r = 0.55, P \ 0.001), which complicates the selection of seeds having simultaneously low L-canavanine and high protein contents. On the other hand, no correlation between protein and condensed tannins or between L-canavanine and condensed tannins was observed. There was a poor relationship between the origin and the composition of the accessions and only the protein content was able to discriminate among the regions.

In this work it has been evaluated the effectiveness of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) for the estimation of two constituents affecting the nutritional quality of the seeds of one-flowered vetch (Vicia articulata Hornem.): protein and L-canavanine, a toxic non-protein amino acid. The NIRS calibrations showed good statistics with coefficients of multiple determination (R 2 ) of 0.97 for total protein and 0.95 for L-canavanine. The developed equations were further used to estimate the contents of protein and L-canavanine of a set of unknown samples (external validation). The equation for total protein was able to predict with an accuracy similar to that of the reference method showing a correlation (r 2 ) between the reference and predicted values of 0.95. In the case of L-canavanine, r 2 was only 0.72 and the equation was only effective to discriminate samples into groups of low, medium and high contents. Additional key words: animal feeding, antinutritional factors, legumes, neglected crops, NIRS, plant breeding. ResumenAplicación de la espectroscopía de reflectancia en el infrarrojo cercano para la estimación de los contenidos de proteína y L-canavanina en semillas de algarroba (Vicia articulata Hornem.)En este trabajo se ha evaluado la eficacia de la espectroscopía de reflectancia en el infrarrojo cercano (NIRS) en la cuantificación de dos componentes que afectan a la calidad nutricional de las semillas de algarroba (Vicia articulata Hornem.): proteína y L-canavanina, un aminoácido tóxico no proteico. Las calibraciones NIRS mostraron unos buenos estadísticos, con coeficientes de determinación múltiple (R 2 ) de 0,97 para la proteína total y 0,95 para la L-canavanina. Las ecuaciones desarrolladas fueron posteriormente utilizadas para estimar los contenidos en proteína y L-canavanina de un grupo de muestras desconocidas (validación externa). La ecuación para proteína total fue capaz de predecir con una exactitud similar a la del método de referencia, mostrando una correlación (r 2 ) entre los valores de referencia y los predichos de 0,95. En el caso de la L-canavanina, r 2 fue sólo de 0,72 y la ecuación sólo sirvió para discriminar las muestras en grupos de bajo, medio y alto contenidos.Palabras clave adicionales: alimentación animal, cultivos abandonados, factores antinutricionales, leguminosas, mejora genética vegetal, NIRS.

One hundred and thirty-four accessions of Lathyrus cicera from the Bank of Plant Germplasm of Cuenca (BGV-Cuenca, Spain) have been analysed for total protein and b-N-oxalyl-L-a,b-diaminopropionic acid (ODAP) contents in order to identify those with a suitable nutritional quality for animal feeding. There was a large variability in both traits, the content of total protein ranged from 22.95% to 30.98% with a mean value of 27.62%, and the ODAP from 0.09% to 0.30% with a mean value of 0.17%. The accessions from Castilla y Leo´n and Castilla-La Mancha showed higher percentages of protein and ODAP as compared with those from Andalucı´a, Greece and Extremadura. Nevertheless, total protein and ODAP contents showed a low positive correlation (r = 0.396, P = 0.01). Several accessions showed a content of ODAP similar to that of the variety ÔChalusÕ and two accessions seemed very suitable for animal feeding because of their high content of protein and low ODAP.