Legumes have nutraceutical qualities that impart beneficial effects on human health. They are an alternative protein source with great potential for use in producing novel foods with improved nutritional properties. This book presents a comprehensive overview of legume proteins, including information on their nutritional and nutraceutical profiles, the health benefits of their compounds, and their underlying bioactivities such as anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-cancer properties.

Climate resilience and growing population are the two main global challenges that encourage the development of an affordable and sustainable source of vegetable protein to ensure future food security. Advanced scientific programs and agro-food developments should be proprietarily on-demand to face different stresses in order to maintain yield and quality of seed production. In this regard, legume crops are key sustainable alternatives for healthier diets while contributing to appropriate natural resource management. Taken together, the 11 chapters in this book represent a generous addition to the progress in our understanding of climate-resilient legumes, hoping to contribute to the improvement of global food security in the future.

The common beans and pulses are diverse food resources of high nutritional value (protein, energy, fiber and vitamins and minerals) with broad social acceptance. These legume crops demonstrate global adaptability, genotypic and phenotypic diversity, and multiple means of preparation and dietary use. Beans and pulses are produced in regions as diverse as Latin America, Africa, Asia, and North America, and on a scale similar to some other crops, such as wheat, corn, rice and soybeans. Numerous factors influence utilization, including bean type and cultivar selection, cropping environment and systems, storage conditions and handling infrastructure, processing and final product preparation. Nutrient content and bio-availability are dramatically influenced by these conditions. In recent years, beans and pulses have been cited for imparting specific positive health potentiating responses, such as hypocholesteremic response, mitigation of diabetes and colonic cancer, and weight control. Enhanced dry bean utilization focused on improved dietary health is an opportunity within both subsistent and developed populations. This book provides a contemporary source of information that brings together current knowledge and practices in the value chain of beans/pulses production, processing, and nutrition. It provides in-depth coverage of a wide variety of pertinent topics including: breeding, postharvest technologies, composition, processing technologies, food safety, quality, nutrition, and significance in human health. An experienced team of over 25 contributors from North America, Asia, and Africa has written 15 chapters, divided into three sections: Overview, production and postharvest technologies of beans and pulses Composition, value-added processing and quality Culinology, nutrition, and significance in human health Contributors come from a field of diverse disciplines, including crop sciences, food science and technology, food biochemistry, food engineering, nutritional sciences, and culinology. Dry Beans and Pulses Production, Processing and Nutrition is an essential resource for scientists, processors and nutritionists, whatever the work setting.

A complete guide to the evolving methods by which we may recover by-products and significantly reduce food waste Across the globe, one third of cereals and almost half of all fruits and vegetables go to waste. The cost of such waste – both to economies and to the environment – is a serious and increasing concern within the food industry. If we are to overcome this crisis and move towards a sustainable future, we must do everything possible to utilize innovative new methods of extracting and processing valuable by-products of all kinds. Food Wastes and By-products represents a complete primer to this important and complex process. Edited and written by leading researchers, the text provides essential information on the supply of waste and its composition, identifies foods rich in valuable bioactive compounds, and explores revolutionary methods for creating by-products from fruit, vegetable, and seed waste. Other chapters discuss the nutraceutical properties of value-added by-products and their uses in the manufacturing of dietary fibers, food flavors, supplements, pectin, and more. This book: Explains how reconstituted by-products can best be used to radically reduce food waste Discusses the potential nutraceutical assets of recovered food waste Covers a broad range of by-product sources, such as mangos, cacao, flaxseed, and spent coffee grounds Describes novel extraction processes and the emerging use of nanotechnology A significant contribution to the field, Food Wastes and By-products is a timely and essential resource for food industry professionals, government agencies and NGOs involved in nutrition, agriculture, and food production, and university instructors and students in related areas.

Biochemical testing necessitates the determination of different parameters, and the identification of the main biological chemical compounds, by using molecular and biochemical tools. The purpose of this book is to introduce a variety of methods and tools to isolate and identify unknown bacteria through biochemical and molecular differences, based on characteristic gene sequences. Furthermore, molecular tools involving DNA sequencing, and biochemical tools based in enzymatic reactions and proteins reactivity, will serve to identify genetically modified organisms in agriculture, as well as for food preservation and healthcare, and improvement through natural products utilization, vaccination and prophylactic treatments, and drugs testing in medical trials.

Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer in North America and around the world. The staggering medical costs involved in treating patients suffering from this disease demand an alternative approach to prevent or minimize its development. In Functional Foods and Cardiovascular Disease, international researchers reveal essential up-to-date information on the role that functional foods and nutraceuticals play in preventing the development of heart disease. Highlighting the physiological benefits of a host of functional foods, the book examines: The pathogenesis of coronary artery disease Genetic methods for enhancing bioactives in foods and new techniques for extracting bioactive components for developing functional foods Clinical and experimental evidence of the cardiovascular benefits of fish oils and plant oils, particularly flaxseed oil The importance of folic acid in homocysteine metabolism and its impact on cardiovascular disease Clinical and experimental evidence for the cardiovascular benefits of plant sterols The beneficial effects of wine, garlic products, eggs, fiber, cocoa and chocolate, and coffee and tea on cardiovascular health While there have been great improvements in treating coronary heart disease through surgery and medications, prevention through diet and exercise should remain an essential priority in maintaining the health of the aging population. Nutritionists, food scientists, and those working in the health industry will find that this book enhances their understanding of the potential role of functional foods in combating cardiovascular disease before more aggressive treatment is needed.

Legumes are a major constituent of vegetarian diets and alleviate malnutrition because they are protein-rich and easily digestible. Moreover, a legume-based diet is much more sustainable than a meat-based diet. Recent research has disclosed major advances in legume agriculture and biotechnology, leading to improved health benefits from nutrients, antioxidants, polyphenolic phytochemicals, phenolic acids, flavonoids and tannins. This book reviews bioactive compounds and their applications, and conventional breeding and biotechnology for legume sustainability and nutritional enhancement.

In the context of climate change, pollution and food safety, the current challenge is to enhance legumes production to sustain the growing population needs by 2050. This is a daunting task because abiotic and biotic stresses are threatening the growth, survival and productivity of legumes. For instance, the productivity of legumes is documented to be reduced by 14-88% by abiotic stresses. The co-occurrence of abiotic and biotic stresses under field conditions leads to interactive stress types, thus yielding positive or negative outcomes. Legumes react using antioxidant defense, osmoregulatory adjustments, hormonal regulations and molecular mechanisms to tolerate stress. Hence, improving legume productivity requires knowledge on the sensitivity, mechanisms and approaches of stress tolerance in legumes, in order to design new crops and alternative management systems. This book presents advances on bioactive compounds, applications, effect of various stresses and biotechnology-based stress tolerance mechanisms of legumes. This is our second volume on Legume Agriculture and Biotechnology, published in the series Sustainable Agriculture Reviews.