CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF CERTAIN DEHULLED LEGUME SEEDS AND THEIR HULLS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CARBOHYDRATES

The chemical composition of dehulled legumes and legume hulls was investigated. The dehulled light- and dark-coloured peas (n = 44), soy beans (n = 12), broad beans (n = 3), sweet white lupins (n = 2) and brown beans (n = 2) contained crude protein, starch and/or crude fat as major components, with a notable variation both within and between the legumes. The content of low molecular weight carbohydrates, including oligosaccharides of the raffinose family, was highest in dehulled soybeans and the content of dietary fibre highest in sweet white lupins. Arabinose, uronic acids and glucose were the main non-starch polysaccharide residues in dehulled peas, broad beans and brown beans. In soybeans and especially sweet white lupins, galactose was the dominating residue. The hull content of the different legumes showed a broad variation from 65 g kg(-1) in brown beans to 240 g kg(-1) in sweet white lupin. The hulls contained 800-950 g kg(-1) dietary fibre, with glucose and uronic acids as the two dominating non-starch polysaccharide residues. Klason lignin was a major dietary fibre component only in dark hulls.