PROXIMATE AND NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITIONS OF FIVE（5）VARIETIES OF INDIGENOUS BEANS CONSUMED IN KADUNA STATE.

1.3  Aim AND OBJECTIVE 5

1.4  SCOPE AND Limitations 6

In Nigeria, a lot of under exploited plant food crops with promising nutritional potentials exist. Lima bean is one of the under exploited food crops with nutritional and food industry processing potentials. Lima bean is among the lesser known legumes in the eastern part of Nigeria. The food crop is one of the traditional staples although in  the  most recent decades has been neglected. However,  the  neglect  is  attributed  to  difficulties  in  production,  processing,  preparation, utilization and negative image attached to it as “poor man’s food”. Lima bean has longer cooking time, especially as compared with  other legumes.  This  longer cooking  time phenomenon is  a particular drawback for its cultivation and food use. It is imperative to investigate the positive attributes  of  this  important  food  legume  especially  its  nutrient  potentials  and  overall acceptability. Christmas lima bean (phaseolus lunatus) is a leguminous plant named after the city Lima, the capital and largest city of Peru, where it was discovered by Europe explorers. It belongs to the family fabaceae and it is believed to have originated in South America around 2000BC (Akroyd and doughty, 1981). It is commonly known as lima bean, sieve bean, or butter bean. It is a long duration crop which is retained in the field for at least 9 months. Lima bean seeds are generally brown in  colour although  certain varieties  have colour  such as  white, red,  purple and black. Christmas lima beans have not received much popularity and acceptance, although most of them are  widely  distributed  and  with  high  yields.  These  neglected pulses  of  tropical  origin  have attracted research interest in recent times due to their nutrient contents as compared to the major legumes (Eke, 2002). Red kidney beans (Phaselous vulgaris) have greatest popularity in the U.S.A, as well  as play long  been  a  part  of  traditional  plant  based  diet  in  many  cultures  of  most  of  the  world’s developing countries (Shimelis and Rakshit, 2007). It is the most important economic variety of the genus phaselous. It is an excellent source of vegetable protein, starch, soluble and insoluble fiber, vitamins (especially B group) and minerals (particularly potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium and manganese). They are low in fat (Ekanyake et al., 1999). The cooked beans are widely used in savory cuisine throughout the world in meals like cassieroles, salads, curine soups, pasta and meat dishes.  The straws are used  as fodders for animals (Katharine, 2002). 

 was discovered by Europe explorers. It belongs to the family fabaceae and it is believed to have originated in South America around 2000BC (Akroyd and doughty, 1981). It is commonly known as lima bean, sieve bean, or butter bean. It is a long duration crop which is retained in the field for at least 9 months. Lima bean seeds are generally brown in  colour although  certain varieties  have colour  such as  white, red,  purple and black. Christmas lima beans have not received much popularity and acceptance, although most of them are  widely  distributed  and  with  high  yields.  These  neglected pulses  of  tropical  origin  have attracted research interest in recent times due to their nutrient contents as compared to the major legumes (Eke, 2002). Red kidney beans (Phaselous vulgaris) have greatest popularity in the U.S.A, as well  as play long  been  a  part  of  traditional  plant  based  diet  in  many  cul Red kidney beans have  been  associated  with  numerous  health  benefits  including  reduction  of  heart  and  renal diseases risks (Bazzano, 2003), cataracts, relieve constipation, improve gastrointestinal integrity, stabilize blood sugar, brain and immune dysfunction.  Rice beans (Vigna umbellata) are small, oval-shaped beans with red skin. They are similar to red kidney beans except that they are smaller in size and also have a more delicate flavor than the red kidney beans. Small red  beans  are also called Mexican  red beans. They hold  their shape  and firmness when cooked. They are particularly popular in the Caribbean region, where they are normally eaten with rice. Rice beans can be used in soups, salads, chilli and Creole dishes. Generally, developing countries do not produce enough foods which have the right nutritional quality to meet daily needs. Therefore there is a great need to search for more nutritionally good food  in  order to  ensure that  all the  potentials sources  of foods  are  exploited effectively  and utilized industrially as food supplement which will meet up consumer acceptability. Hence the objective  of  this  research  work  is  to  compare  the  proximate  composition  and  functional properties of underutilized Leguminous seed flours (Christmas Lima and Rice bean) with that of Red kidney with the intention of using them as foods of plant source to overcome the acute food shortage of animal protein as encountered in under developing countries. 

Black and Red beans are associated with Latin American cuisine in a particular, although they can complement foods from many places.（Thompson, 2000）. They were first domensticated over 7000 years ago, in the region of South American known as peru. Since the beans grow readily in warm weather and preserved well, they quickly became an integral part of the South American diet. The food entered Europe when early explorers brought black beans with them in 1500s, when returning from their voyages to the new world and were subsequently spread to Africa and Asia by Spanish and Portuguese（Autonio, 2002）. Black and Red beans is an important crop in Nigeria（especially in the Northern region, known by Hausa to be Ashushiru）

Malnutrition is a major health problem in developing countries and contributes to infant mortality, poor physical and intellectual development of infants, as well as lowered resistance to disease and consequently stifles development (Sajilata et al., 2002). Variety of beans have their nutritional compositions, some are higher in protein, vitamins and minerals, while some are less and other nutritional compositions. The need to determine the proximate compositions, minerals and vitamins of various beans sold within kaduna state is necessary to Access the nutritional .

The study is very necessary because it provides the nutritional composition with several benefits such as sufficient supply of nutrients, rapid growth, healthy and active lifestyle, and reduce risk of diseases. different variety of beans are comsumed by people but the nutritional compositions,  health benefit, and the best in nutritional content are unknown to the consumers. Hence there is need to quantify the major content of these beans and compare with those of acceped standards （Reissig et., 2009）.

The Aim of this work is to evaluate the proximate compositions and other  nutritional compositions of five（5）varieties of indigenous  beans consumed in Kaduna State.

This project work will be carriedout within Kaduna State. The proximate analysis, vitamins and minerals was carried out in Biochemistry Lab, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, Samaru, Zaria.