The nutraceutical value of grain legumes: characterisation of bioactives and antinutritionals related to diabesity management

Beyond the nutritional value, legumes and particularly common beans are found in several dietary supplements used to treat diabesity (diabetes and obesity). These products contain not only inhibitors of carbohydrate-hydrolising enzymes (alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase), but also antinutritional factors that can cause adverse effects on human health. In the present research, twenty-two accessions of grain legumes were screened for bioactive (alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors) and antinutritional (lectins, flatulence-producing sugars, trypsin inhibitors) phytochemicals. Results showed that four accessions had high alpha-amylase inhibiting activities (AI > 30%), and particularly the common bean 'Great Northern' resulted of interest for its high carbo-blocker activity (AI = 42.6 +/- 0.5%), absence of lectins, low amounts of flatulence-producing oligosaccharides (2.5 +/- 0.2 g/100 g DW) and low anti-trypsin activity (22.5 +/- 4.3 trypsin inhibiting unit/mg DW). The knowledge offered from this work provides leads to the ultimate goal of developing new, more effective and safer dietary supplements for diabesity management.