Heat-stable and heat-labile antinutritional profile in Mucuna pruriens var utilis: Effected by germination

The seeds of different germplasm of velvet bean, an underutilized tribal pulse, collected from Western Ghats, India were germinated upto 120 h with a view to assess the extent of reduction/deactivation of both heat stable and heat labile antinutrients. The extent of reduction in the contents of heat stable ANF like total free phenolics, tannins, phytic acid, L-Dopa ranged from 69.5 to 75.7%; 62.3 - 70.7%; 60.67 - 82.81%; 34.8 - 58.4%, respectively; whereas the heat labile ANF’s like trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors reduced at the ranges between 67.5 -77.0% and 76.9 - 83.0%, respectively in the seeds subjected to prolonged germination (ie., upto120 h). Regarding lectins (phytohaemagglutinins) the reduction was registered upto 60% in all the studied germplasm except Thachenmalai (black coloured seed coat). Furthermore, significant positive correlation i.e. R² 0.791 was observed between the contents of antinutrients (x) and the period of germination (y) in the studied germplasm. However, it was less pronounced for L-Dopa content. To sum up, prolonging period of germination has significant reduction in the contents of ANF’s been noticed. Germination for five days was found to be one of the optimal, traditional and cost-effective alternate processing methods in deactivating these antinutrients for further product development to combat highly prevailing Protein Energy Malnutrition.