Legumes as Food Ingredient: Characterization, Processing, and Applications

Dear colleagues,

Grain legumes like chickpeas, lentils, lupins, peas, cowpeas, and beans, among others, are well-recognized as sources of proteins, starch, fibre, vitamins, and minerals for the human diet, being an essential food crop for people around the globe. They are major ingredients in the Mediteranean diet, playing a vital role in developing countries. Recent advances have been made in unravelling the beneficial effects of legumes beyond meeting basic nutrient requirements. Thus, there is a growing body of scientific evidences regarding the health benefits of some of their bioactive components in inflammatory-related diseases, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), obesity and weight management, type-2 diabetes, and cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully clarified.

This Special issue is looking for up-to-date and innovative contributions of scientists working in the following:

    a) The nutritional quality and functional properties of legumes and their components;
    b) Seed nutraceuticals compounds and their molecular mechanisms for human health improvement;
    c) The caracterization of novel legume varieties with enhanced nutritional properties;
    d) Global food security;
    e) The potential benefits of legume compsumption or their bioactive components in human health;
    f) The impact of legume processing such as soaking, dehulling, boiling, autoclaving, microwave cooking, germination, and fermentation in their nutritional and anti-nutritional (i.e., food allergy) properties;
    g) The development of novel legume-derived products adapted to consumer preference;
    h) Other related topics, in order to provide an updated and global vision of the importance of legumes in human nutrition.

Dr. Alfonso Clemente
Dr. Jose Carlos Jimenez-Lopez
Guest Editors

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