Recent advancements in properties, modifications, and applications of legume starches

Abstract

Legumes are members of the Fabaceae family, whose seeds have been a staple of human sustenance since prehistoric times. They have high contents of carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals and a wide range of non-nutrient bioactive compounds that impact positive health. Most legume polysaccharides are principally made up of starch. Legume starches are rich in amylose and show limited swelling power and poor water dispersion. They showed higher retrogradation properties than cereal starches due to more amylose content and produced higher resistant starch, consequently decreasing the glycemic index. Further, these starches shave strong bondings, confirming their high gelatinization transition temperatures and enthalpies. This review highlighted developments in the morphological, pasting, structural, thermal, crystallinity, and digestibility properties of legume starches. The differences in granule sizes, gelatinization transition temperatures, gelatinization enthalpies, peak viscosities, pasting temperatures, and setback viscosities ranged from 4–80 μm, 50.80–142.40°C, 4.67–15.30 J/g, 390.24–14,380.00 cP, 70.30–88.55°C, and 113.04–944.00 cP, respectively among the legume starches. Understanding the properties of legume starches provides insights into the novel direction of their utilization. Further, there is a bold attempt to compare legumes to starches from different botanical sources. Novelty impact statement: This review summarized the recent research on the properties of legumes starches and their applicability in the food and non-food industries.