Effects of gamma irradiation and/or cooking on nutritional quality of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivars seeds.

The effect of gamma irradiation (0.5 and 1.0 kGy) and/or cooking on the proximate composition, mineral content, tannin content, phytic acid content and the in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) of two Sudanese faba bean cultivars (BB7-S1 and SH-S2) was investigated in the present study. The results obtained revealed that gamma irradiation and/or cooking treatments have slight effect in chemical composition and mineral content, while they caused significant (P ≤ 0.05) reduction on tannin content for both cultivars. Cooking of faba bean seeds also insignificantly (P ≤ 0.05) reduced phytic acid content for both cultivars, while irradiation process and/or cooking had fluctuated effect. For both cultivars, irradiation of seeds and/or cooking increased the in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD), with maximum value of IVPD (79.97%) obtained for cultivar BB7-S1. The results indicate that the treatments used in this study might improve the nutritive quality of faba bean seed due to reduction in antinutritional factors with a concomitant increase in IVPD.