Nutritional value

Grain legumes are a recognized important dietary source of nutrients for human welfare, either directly, as a component of the diet, or indirectly, being used to feed livestock. Legume seeds provide an exceptionally variety of essential nutrients including, proteins, fibers, minerals and vitamins, nevertheless they also contain bioactive and/or antinutritional compounds, such as phytate, oligosaccharides, phenolic compounds, non protein amino acids, lectins, enzyme inhibitors that play metabolic roles in humans or animals and whose effects may be regarded as positive, negative, or both. In this chapter the main classes of these compounds, together with some minor species specific ones, will be described in relation to their biological activities, abundance in grain legume seeds and role in nutrition and health.