Antinutrients are natural or synthetic compounds which interfere with the absorption of nutrients.
Legumes and whole pulses, i.e., cowpea, horse gram, bengal gram, red gram etc. contain some antinutritional factors.
Antinutritional factors are the chemical substances which although non toxic generate adverse physiological responses and interfere with the utilization of nutrients.
Antinutritional factors are trypsin inhibitor, lectins, goitrogens, antivitamins, phytates, saponin, oestrogens, flatulence factors, allergens and lysinoalanine. Other antinutritional factors are cyanogens, favism factor, lathyrism factor, amylase inhibitors, tannins, aflatoxins and pressor amines. Most of the legumes and pulses contain few of antinutritional factors.
Some antinutritional factors are heat labile and most of the humans consume legume after cooking, hence, it would not constitute any major health hazard. But other antinutritional factors, i.e., polyphenols and phytates are heat stable which are not easily removed by simple cooking.
Therefore, different processing techniques, i.e., soaking, germination, fermentation, boiling, blanching, dehulling, etc. are required to reduce the amount of antinutritional factors.
Application of different processing techniques on legumes/pulses not only reduce the antinutritional factors but also enhance the nutritional value of legumes by increasing amount of essential amino acids, B-vitamins and protein digestibility. These techniques cause important changes in biochemical, nutritional and sensory characteristics which positively affect the acceptability of food items produced from processed legumes or pulses.
