Condensed tannin: a major anti-nutritional constituent of faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

Abstract

Nutritionally faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is one of the important legume crops cultivated for both food and feed purposes. However, in some parts of the world it has not gained status of commercial legume crop and continues to be grown in marginal agricultural fields with almost no agricultural inputs. Despite of having nutritional as well as medicinal properties, it is not being cultivated in large scale because of one or other anti-nutritional constituents present in its edible parts. Condensed tannins are one of the major anti-nutritional factors found in edible parts of this crop which confers noticeable astringency and inhibition in digestion process. Molecular breeding and genetic engineering approaches may provide successful way to improve this crop to reduce the content of condensed tannin in the seed coat. Germplasm characterization for identification of best parents and identification of crucial genes/QTLs are some of the initial steps for improvement of this crop. Genomic information available in model and other legume crops will also serve as important resources for taking suitable approach.

Nutritional Value, Secondary Metabolites, Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory and Antibacterial Activities of Three Woody Forage Plants

“…Phenolic compounds may directly affect dry matter digestibility (Iason and Palo, 1991). Tannins are important antinutritional factors in plant feed and are widely present in multiple plant organs and tissues (Sinha and Amresh et al, 2018). Alkaloids are an important class of natural organic compounds that exhibit antiparasitic (Risticevic et al, 2020), antiplasmodial (Pereira et al, 2017), antiseptic (Gonzales and Tolentino, 2014), antioxidant (Supong et al, 2016), antibacterial (Onyema et al, 2016) and insecticidal properties.…”

The challenge of breeding for reduced off-flavor in faba bean ingredients

“…Plant breeding efforts have led to the development of several low-tannin or zero-tannin faba bean varieties that are currently sold on the market. Low tannin genotypes present a reduction in condensed tannin content from ~8% to up to 0.01% on the dry matter ( Oomah et al., 2011 ; Subodh Kumar and Amresh, 2018 ). Breeding for condensed tannins reduction mainly aimed at improving the nutritional value of animal feed ( Guevara Oquendo et al., 2022 ).…”