[How I got to study legumes]

In this paper the author presents a brief account of his involvement in the study of legume seeds form a nutritional and toxicological perspective. After observing that the Venezuelan peasants ate diets which often included cooked black beans and a form of corn bread called arepas, he performed nutritional trials which led him to recognize that raw beans contained thermolabile antinutritional factors and that their proteins were complementary to those of corn. Among the antinutritional factors, he isolated a hemagglutinating fraction which later was further characterized. Based on their properties he recognized the existence of four different types of Phaseolus vulgaris cultivars. Research on the nutritive value of bean diets also got him involved in the identification of a growth factor later called vitamin B12.