On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. Unlike bean sprouts publix closely related pea, beans are a summer crop that needs warm temperatures to grow.

Legumes are capable of nitrogen fixation and hence need less fertiliser than most plants. 60 days from planting to harvest. This makes the bush bean more practical for commercial production. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

Beans were an important source of protein throughout Old and New World history, and still are today. Beans are one of the longest-cultivated plants in history. Broad beans, also called fava beans, are in their wild state the size of a small fingernail, and were first gathered in Afghanistan and the Himalayan foothills. The oldest-known domesticated beans in the Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave, an archaeological site in Peru, and dated to around the second millennium BCE. Most of the kinds of beans commonly eaten today are part of the genus Phaseolus, which originated in the Americas. The first European to encounter them was Christopher Columbus, while exploring what may have been the Bahamas, and saw them growing in fields. Beans were cultivated across Chile in Pre-Hispanic times, likely as far south as Chiloé Archipelago.

Currently, the world gene banks hold about 40,000 bean varieties, although only a fraction are mass-produced for regular consumption. Certain varieties contain high levels of toxic phytohemagglutinin. Requires soaking and then cooking at or above 100C for a minimum of 30 minutes, and ideally much longer. Contains L-DOPA, and smaller amounts of other psychoactive compounds. Can also cause itching and rashes on contact. Requires prolonged soaking in the correct way to reduce toxic compounds. Can cause Lathyrism if used as staple.

Contains Coumarins, an important class of perfume ingredients. Coumarin is also a blood thinner. Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Many types of bean like kidney bean contain significant amounts of antinutrients that inhibit some enzyme processes in the body. Phytic acid and phytates, present in grains, nuts, seeds and beans, interfere with bone growth and interrupt vitamin D metabolism.

Some kinds of raw beans contain a harmful, tasteless toxin: the lectin phytohaemagglutinin, which must be removed by cooking. Red kidney beans are particularly toxic, but other types also pose risks of food poisoning. Cooking beans, without bringing them to a boil, in a slow cooker at a temperature well below boiling may not destroy toxins. Fermentation is used in some parts of Africa to improve the nutritional value of beans by removing toxins. Inexpensive fermentation improves the nutritional impact of flour from dry beans and improves digestibility, according to research co-authored by Emire Shimelis, from the Food Engineering Program at Addis Ababa University.

Pulses dry: all mature and dry seeds of leguminous plants except soybeans and groundnuts. Fresh vegetable: immature green fresh fruits of leguminous plants. The following is a summary of FAO data. Drastic increase driven by the demand for animal feeds and oil. 83 million tons, “Peas, dry ” 14.

36 million tons, “Chick peas ” 12. 09 million tons, “Cow peas ” 6. 99 million tons, “Lentils ” 6. 32 million tons, “Pigeon peas ” 4. 49 million tons, “Broad beans, horse beans ” 4. In general, the consumption of pulses per capita has been decreasing since 1961.

In Africa, the most important producer is Tanzania. Early Named Soybean Varieties in the United States and Canada: Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Hoabinhian: A pebble-tool complex with early plant associations in southeast Asia”. Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf Domestication of Plants in the Old World Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 0199549060, p. And as in some great threshing-floor go leaping From a broad pan the black-skinned beans or peas. World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways through Time.