Essential minerals and phytic acid in legumes with reference to their nutritive and medicinal properties

Three commonly used legumes, Macrotyloma uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc., Phaseolus lunatus Linn., and Phaseolus vulgaris Linn., were subjected to determine their minerals and phytic acid contents to correlate their nutritional and medicinal properties. To quantify essential minerals, atomic absorption spectroscopic method, while for phytic acid estimation, spectrophotometric method was used. Presence of Fe, Mg, Mn, P and Zn were recorded in good quantities, Ca and Cu in moderate, while K in small quantity in the seed flours of all the three tested legumes. Maximum Fe and Zn content (0.38 and 0.40 mg/g) were recorded in P. vulgaris, while M. uniflorum delivered high content of Mg, Mn, P and Ca (0.21, 0.20, 77.94 and 0.04 mg/g) and 0.04 mg/g Cu was recorded in P. lunatus. The highest level of phytic acid (37.00 mg/g) was recorded in M. uniflorum at 519 nm. The estimated quantities of minerals and phytic acid provide a good opportunity to draw a conclusion that all the three tested legumes could potentially be used as food to achieve nutritional and health related functional benefits.