Kinetic of water adsorption in common bean: considerations on the suitability of Peleg s model for describing bean hydration

Water uptake of common bean samples belonging to both commercial cultivars and Italian local varieties and representing different market classes was studied. Three hydration groups characterized by slow, intermediate and fast water uptake were identified. Predictive efficacy of Peleg model, commonly used to describe legume soaking, was evaluated by analyzing data relative to samples belonging to the three hydration groups. It was observed that different hydration rate gave rise to significant variation of both Peleg constants within as well as among the groups. Moreover, the Peleg model predicted adequately only the hydration kinetic of common bean samples belonging to the fast hydration group.