Inulin - A prebiotic substance

Inulin, a polyfructan, occurs as a reserve carbohydrate in many plant families, representing more than 30,000 species. It is a potent substrate both for the production of inulinases and fructooligosaccharides. 

Inulin is a specific type of dietary fibre that is naturally found in hundreds of common foods such as leeks, asparagus, onions, garlic, bananas, wheat, rye and chicory root. 

Inulin has excellent nutritional and functional characteristics and can be used to replace fat, flour and sugar. 

Inulin may offer more health benefits than other fibres.

Health benefits of inulin-

• Inulin is part of a chain of bacteria that keeps your gut healthy and alleviates digestive problems. 

• Inulin helps digestion, prevents constipation, and keeps you regular.

• Because inulin is not digested, it does not affect glucose levels. This makes it an appropriate food for diabetics. 

• Inulin may boost calcium absorption.

Horse gram

Horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) or kulthi is one of the unexploited legume of the tropics and subtropics.

• It contain good amount of proteins.
• It has good macro (protein 22 g, carbohydrate 57 g, fibre 5.3 g) and micro nutrient (calcium 287 mg, phosphorus 311  mg, iron 7.6 mg, thiamine 218 mcg, riboflavin 192 mcg, sodium 46 mg, potassium 322 mg) content (per 100 g).
• It is considered as food with medicinal qualities in traditional Siddha medicine.
• It is prescribed for individuals suffering from jaundice or water retention and as a part of weight loss diet.
• Per 100 g horse gram contain 7.6 mg iron, hence, it is considered helpful for iron deficiencies.
•  Traditionally it was used as medicine to treat calculus afflictions, corpulence, hiccups, worms and kidney stone.
• Seeds of horse gram are astringent to the bowels, diuretic, antipyretic, tonic, anthelmic emmenagogul, appetizing and lithontriptic. these are useful in piles, tumors, bronchitis, heart troubles, spleen enlargement and asthma.
• It can be used in leucorrhoea, menstrual disorders, flatulence, cough, eye disease and urinary disease.

Despite being healthy and nutritious, this gram has remained an underutilized food. One can enrich his/her diet with horse gram and take benefits of its health and nutritional properties.

Antinutritional Factors and Legumes

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.

Garlic

Allicin is a main compound found in garlic that has potent medicinal properties. 

Garlic consumption helps in prevention of common illnesses, i.e., acne,

flu and common cold. It is also helpful in reducing the severity of these illnesses.

Regular consumption can prevent heart diseases.

Garlic has been shown to inhibit enzymes involved in lipid synthesis.

It decreases platelet aggregation and prevent lipid peroxidation of oxidized erythrocytes and LDL, increase antioxidant status. 

Garlic has antithrombotic and antiplatelet aggregatory effects.

Health benefits of garlic are antibiotic, antihypertensive and cholesterol-lowering properties.

High doses of garlic appear to improve blood pressure in hypertensive patients

Dietary fibre

Dietary fibre or roughage are indigestible compounds which are fermented by the bacteria in the human colon.

Dietary fibre has two main components, i.e., soluble and insoluble fibre.

Soluble fibres are dissolve in water and they easily fermented in colon into gases.

Insoluble fibre does not dissolve in water, they provide bulk to the diet. They can be prebiotics.

They produce short chain fatty acids in the colon that may be utilized by the mucosal cells or may be absorbed and transported to other tissues where they have been hypothesized to regulate several metabolic processes.

Dietary fibre provide bulking effect in the diet that increases fecal volume, limits caloric intake, slows stomach emptying. 

They work as a laxative and provide relive in constipation.

They also have the capacity to bind or absorb other organic compounds i.e., sugars and fats. 

They help in lowering cholesterol levels in the blood which leads to less plaque formation, prevents the blocking of blood vessels, and therefore, they reduce the risk of hypertension and stroke. 

They are helpful in enhancing weight control and in a better glycemic control.

Olive oil

Olive oil is best edible oil in terms of palatibility and lipid profile.

High monounsaturated fatty acid concentrations in olive oil reduce total and LDL levels in comparison with saturated fats but other components of the oil are also thought to have a positive impact on cardiovascular health.

It decreases the risk of thrombogenesis.

Oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol are the polyphenols isolated from olive oil which are potent scavengers of superoxide radicals in cell.

The antioxidant alfa-tocopherol present in olive oil added to its ability to protect LDL from oxidation

Cowpea: An important legume

The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is a widely grown legume food crop of the tropics. It is an important crop of India and it is known by many Vernacular names like lobia (Hindi), barbatati (bangals), sonta (Garhwali), chavati (Marathi), alasande (Canada) and mampayer (Malayalam). In Rajasthan it is widely known as crowder pea, black eye bean, black eye pea, and southern pea. The seed vary in size (2 to 12mm), shape (globular to kidney shaped), texture (smooth or wrinkled) and colour (white, green, buff, red, brown and black) and are variably speckled, mustard blotched or eyed

Table 1 Nutritive value of cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata L.)

Nutrients	Amount  (100 g)
Moisture (%)	13.40
Protein (g)	24.10
Fat (g)	1.00
Carbohydrate (g)	323.00
Minerals (g)	3.20
Fibre (g)	3.80
Carotene (mg)	12.00
Thiamine (mg)	0.51
Phosphorus (mg)	77.00
Iron (mg)	8.60
Folic acid (mg)	8.60
Riboflavin (mg)	0.20
Niacin (mg)	0.20
Calcium (mg)	60.00

Health benefits of Cowpea

• Cowpea is famous traditional Chinese herbal medicine, which has functions of nourishing spleen, kidney, curing vomiting and dysentery.
• It tones the spleen, stomach and pancreas and relieves damp conditions like leucorrhea.
• The soluble fiber found in these beans has a low glycemic index and provide low risk for diabetes.
• The cooking liquor of the seed with spices is considered to be a potential remedy for the common cold.
• The leaves and seeds are applied as a poultice to treat swellings and infections, leaves are chewed to treat tooth ailments, powdered carbonized seeds are applied on insect stings, the root is used as an antidote for snakebites and to treat epilepsy, chest pain, constipation and dysmenorrheal and unspecified part of plant are used as a sedative in tachycardia and against various pains.
• An infusion of seed can be taken orally to treat amenorrhea while powdered roots eaten with porridge are believed to treat painful menstruation, epilepsy and chest pain.