PULSES

BINISH SARWAR KHAN

Lecturer/Consultant Dietitian &
Community Nutrition
University of Agriculture Faisalabad
 WHAT ARE PULSES?
• Annual leguminous crops yielding from one to 12 grains
or seeds of variable size, shape and colour within a
pod.
• Used for both food and feed
• The term "pulses" is limited to crops harvested solely for
dry grain, thereby excluding crops harvested green for
food (green peas, green beans, etc.) which are classified
as vegetable crops.
• Also excluded are those crops used mainly for oil
extraction (e.g. soybean and groundnuts) and
leguminous crops (e.g. seeds of clover and alfalfa) that
are used exclusively for sowing purposes.
• They include bambara beans; dry beans (e.g. kidney,
adzuki, black gram, sword, winged, hyacinth, yam); dry
broad beans; dry horse beans; chick peas; dry cow peas; Source: Pulse
lentils; lupins; dry peas; pigeon peas; and vetches. Canada

Source: FAO, 2015. Available on:

http://www.fao.org/pulses-2016/en/
 PULSES
• Pulses are the edible fruits or seeds of pod bearing
plants belonging to the family of Leguminosae and are
widely grown throughout the world.
• Pulses are defined as annual leguminous crops yielding
from one to twelve grains or seeds of variable size,
shape and color within a pod.
• They have 20-40% of protein and this makes them
important in human food from point the point of view
of nutrition.
• Pulses are the poor man’s meat.
• The per capita availability of pulses has declined from
64 g per day(1951-56) to less than 40 g per day as
against the FAO/WHO’s recommendation of 80 g of
protein per day.
STRUCTURE OF LEGUMES
 WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
• Pulse crops such as lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas are an important source
of plant-based proteins and amino acids for humans and animals. They also
provide other important nutrients;
• Pulses play as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security
and nutrition. They are part of a healthy diet to address all forms of
malnutrition
• Pulses are thought to have positive effects on the prevention of non-
communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, coronary conditions and
cancer
• Pulses are recommended in many dietary guidelines such as Health Canada’s
Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide, the MyPlate system of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Eatwell Plate of the Food Standards
Agency in the UK and Nutrition Australia’s Healthy Living Pyramid
• Pulses are an important part of vegetarian diets and are often used as meat
replacement. They are therefore contributing positively to climate change.
Source: UN, 2014. Available on:
 WORLD PRODUCTION

Source: FAOSTAT,
FOOD SUPPLY OF PULSES – WORLD &
REGIONS
1
4

1
2

1 World
08
Africa
g
k

America
6
s Asia

4
Europe
Oceania
2

0
196

196

196

196

196

197

197

197

197

198

198

198

198

198

199

199

199

199

199
197
1

7
Year
Food supply quantity – pulses
(kg/capita/yr)
COMPOSITION OF
PULSES
 COMPOSITION

• The chemical composition of edible pulse

seeds depends upon the species.
• In general, their protein content is high and is
commonly more than twice that of cereal
grains, usually constituting about 20% of the
dry weight of seeds.
• The protein content of some legumes like
soyabean is high as 40%.
 Inaddition to nutritional factors, pulses
contains several heat-stable and heat-
labile anti-nutritional and/OR toxic factor
 These include enzyme inhibitors, toxic
substances factors inciting clinical
disorder, factors which interfere with
digestion, and flatulence-causing
substances
 These factors are to be reduced or
eliminate to make pulse seeds more
acceptable as a source of inexpensive
nutritional proteins, and maximize their
utilization as human food
PULSE PROTEINS
• Pulse are chiefly globulins but albumins are also present in
a few species.
• Pulse proteins are deficient in sulphur- containing amino
acids, particularly in methionine and in tryptophan.
• Only soya-bean has tryptophan levels equal to the FAO
pattern.
• All pulses contain sufficient amounts of leucine and
phenylalanine.
• Lysine and threonine contents are low only
groundnuts.
• A majority of pulse proteins have high molecular weights
and are very compact molecules, and this reduces the
digestibility of the native protein.
• Proteins also form complexes with phytin and polyphenols
present in pulses, contributing to their low digestibility.
• The protein content of pulses is 20-40%.
 CARBOHYDRATES
• Food pulses contain about 55-60% of total
carbohydrates, including starch, soluble sugars,
fibre and unavailable carbohydrates.
• Starch accounts for the major proportion
of carbohydrates in legumes.
• The unavailable sugars in pulses include include
substantial levels of oligosaccharides of the
raffinose
family of sugars which cause flatulence production
in man and animals.
• These escape digestion, when they are ingested, due
to the lack of alpha-galactosidase activity in
mammalian mucosa.
• Oligosaccharides are not absorbed in the
blood and are digested by the microflora of
inner intestinal tract, resulting in production
of carbon dioxide,hydrogen and small
amount of methane.
• Germination,soaking, cooking,
autoclaving and fermentation reduces
considerable amount of oligosaccharides.
 LIPIDS
• Lipids form about 1.5 % of dry matter in
pulses except in groundnut, soyabean and
winged bean.
• Most of the pulse lipids contains poly-
unsaturated acids. They undergo rancidity
during storage resulting in undesirable
changes, such as loss of protein solubility, off
flavor development and loss of nutritive
quality.
 MINERALS
• Pulses are important sources of
calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron,
potassium and phosphorus.
• 80% of phosphorus in many pulses is
present as phytate phosphorus.
• Phytin complexes with proteins and
minerals and renders them biologically
unavailable to human beings and animals.
• Processing can reduce the phytin levels.
 VITAMINS
• Pulses contain small amount of carotene, the
provitamin A.
• Many Pulses contain 50-300 IU of Vitamin A
per 100g.
• Thiamine content of pulses is approximately
equal to exceeds whole of cereals, the average
value of thaimin being 0.4 -0.5 mg per 100 g
of pulses.
• Pulses are rich in niacin (about 2.0mg/100g).
• Poor in riboflavin, dry legumes are almost
devoid of ascorbic acid.
Nutrient profile (per 100g
EP)
Pulse
Energy Protein
(kcal) (g)
Fat
CHOAV Dietar
L (g) y
Fe (mg) Zn (mg) Folate(mc
(g) g)
kJ Fiber
(g)
Lentils,
(351)148 24.6 1.1 55.3 10.7 6.51 3.3 479
dried,
raw#
5

Beans,
(335)142 22.1 1.5 47.1 16.7 5.7 3.8 395
white,
dried*
0

Cowpea,
(316)134 21.2 1.3 47.2 15.3 7.3 4.6 417
dried,
raw
0

Chickpeas
, mature (378)158 20.5 6.0 50.7 12.2 4.3 2.8 557
seeds, 0
raw#

Beans,
pinto, (347)134 21.4 1.2 47.0 15.5 5.1 2.3 525
mature 0
seeds,
raw#
Bean,* West African Food Composition Table, 2012; #USDA, 2014;
Source:
IMPORTANCE IN HUMAN NUTRITION - COMPOSITION
• High protein content in their structure and significant importance in terms of
nutrition source;
• The amino acid composition of pulses are complementary to those of cereals,
and if consumed in combination, increase the overall protein quality of the
meal;
• High content of fibre and relatively high amylose starch and antinutrients
(phytic acid)
• Low fat content and no cholesterol;
• Low glycemic index;
• Rich in minerals (iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc) and B-
vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, and folate).
• The high iron content contributes to meeting iron requirements
• However, phytate is negatively impacting on the mineral absorption
• Produce flatulance because of the oligosaccharide content

Campos-Vega et al., 2010; Kalogeropoulos, 2010;

Curran, 2012
 IMPORTANCE IN HUMAN NUTRITION – HEALTH
BENEFITS
• Association between consumption of pulses and reduced risk of
obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, components of
metabolic syndrome and cancer;
• Pulses may help to increase satiety and weight loss (fibres, trypsin
inhibitors and lectins may reduce food intake by facilitating and
prolonging cholecystokinin secretion)
• Dietary fibre and resistant starch of pulses have been shown to alter
energy expenditure, substrate trafficking and fat oxidation as well as
visceral adipose deposition
• The high amounts of insoluble fibre found in pulses has shown to
improve colon health, helping to prevent colon-rectal cancer
• Phytonutrients, including antioxidants, found in pulses may
have anti-cancer properties;

Alekel et al., 2000; Anderson &Major, 2002 ; Smith et al., 2012; Hutchins et al., 2012; Marinangele & Jones,
2012; Dahl et al., 2012
AUTHORATIVE FOOD COMPOSITION DATABASES ON
PULSES
First step - Collection of analytical data
• To be published in the FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Database for
Biodiversity and in the FAO/INFOODS Analytical Food Composition
Database
• Over 22000 scientific articles identified which need to be evaluated
and relevant data to be compiled into the databases. Data from other
sources to be received, e.g. Pulses Canada
• Two species already evaluated:
• velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) 200 articles evaluated
• and yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus L.) 45 articles evaluated
• and are being compiled

Second step – Global User Database

• Develop a user database with a complete nutrient profile of 28
nutrients and amino acids
 FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Database for
Biodiversity -BioFoodComp
Foods counting for
biodiversity: • About 6500 foods and
• foods below species level, i.e.
subspecies, variety/cultivar/breed >65000 data points
level (genetics)
• Number of
underutilized foods food entries
• wild foods
Version 1.0 (2010) 2401
Foods cover 11 food groups: Version 1.1 (2011) 2577
Cereals, starchy roots and tubers, Version 2.0 (2012) 6411
legumes, nuts and seeds,
vegetables, fruits, meat and poultry, Version 2.1 (2013) 6497
eggs, fish and shellfish, milk, and
miscellaneous; pulses in the • About 450 food
future components
Possible uses of the Food composition Databases on Pulses
• Promote pulses, incl. ‘forgotten’ pulses, for their nutritional
contribution and thus increase their consumption
• probably after some agriculture research aiming to decrease negative features
such as high cooking time or high phytate content
• by adding processing, e.g. production of pulse flour, for urban settings

• Identify data gaps and fill them

• Collect recipes and publish a recipe book or fact sheets including
their nutrient values. Organizing pulses fairs with tasting of
different recipes (with NVs)
• Emphasis role of pulses in school nutrition, complementary
feeding, healthy diets, meat-free days
TYPES OF PULSES
 ADUKHI BEANS
•Also known as adzuki beans, these tiny, deep red
beans have a sweet, nutty flavour & are popular in
Oriental dishes

•Are cooked quickly & used in casseroles & bakes

•Ground into flour & used in cakes ,bread & pastries

•Ex-adzuki bean miso soup

 BLACK BEANS
•Shiny black, kidney -shaped , sweetish flavor

•Used in Caribbean dishes

•Used in soup preparation & bean salads

Black Bean Tostada with Mango Salsa

 HARICOT BEANS

•The beans are roughly oval shaped and flattened,

with a pure white edible skin.
•The flavour of haricot beans is relatively bland,
although the beans are rich in protein
•Commonly used for canned baked dishes

Sausage & bean stew Soup

CHICK PEAS (BENGAL GRAM)

•Also known as garbanzo beans, robust & hearty

chick- peas have a delicious nutty flavour &
creamy texture
•Two varieties are available
•Desi, which has small, darker seeds and a rough coat
•Kabuli, which has lighter coloured, larger seeds and a smoother
coat
•They are ground into flour to make flat bread & fritters

Pindi Chana falafel

Sprouted desi chana
 KIDNEY BEANS (RAJMAH)

•Glossy ,mahogany –red kidney beans retain

their colour and shape when cooked .
•Have a soft mealy texture
•Used in preparing various types of salad

Refried beans Kidney Bean Salad

 GREEN GRAM (MUNG BEANS)

•Beans are small, olive – colored and are native of India

•With their skins removed, mung beans are light yellow
in color.
•It is soft & sweet when cooked also used as sprouted
beans
SPLIT BLACK GRAM (URAD DAL)

•Boiled or eaten whole or after splitting into dal It

is ground into flour or paste
•Used in culinary preparation like dosa ,idli, vada
& papad
RED LENTIL (MASUR DAL)

•Low in fat but high in protein & fiber

•They have earthy flavour & they cook easily
YELLOW LENTIL (ARHAR DAL)

•Whole tur lentils are yellow with tan jackets

Usually sold skinned and split
•They have a nutty flavour
 Milling of
• Introduction Pulses
• Pulses are rich in proteins and are mainly consumed in
the form of dehusked split pulses.
• Pulses are the main source of protein in vegetarian diet.
There are about 4000 pulses mills (Dhal mills) in India.
• The average processing capacities of pulses mills in
India vary from 10 to 20 tons/day.
• Milling of pulses means removal of the outer husk
and splitting the grain into two equal halves.
• Generally, the husk is much more tightly held by the kernel
of some pulses than most cereals. Therefore, dehusking of
some pulses poses a problem.
• The method of alternate wetting and drying is used to
facilitate dehusking and splitting of pulses. In India, the
dehusked split pulses are produced by traditional methods
of milling.
• In traditional pulses milling methods, the loosening of husk
by conditioning is insufficient.
• Therefore, a large amount of abrasive force is applied for
the complete dehusking of the grains, which results in
high losses in the form of brokens and powder.
• Consequently, the yield of split pulses in traditional mills is
only 65%–70% in comparison to 82%–85% potential
yield.
• It is, therefore, necessary to improve the traditional
methods of pulses milling to increase the total yield of
dehusked and split pulses and reduce the losses.
 Varieties, Composition, and
Structure
• Green gram, red gram, Bengal gram, horse
gram, cluster bean, field pea, and arhar
are some of the common types of pulses.
 Traditional Dry Milling
Method (Dhal’s
• Milling)
There is no common processing method for all types of pulses. However, some
general operations of dry milling method such as cleaning and grading, rolling
or pitting, oiling, moistening, drying, and milling have been described in
subsequent paragraphs.
• Cleaning and Grading
• Pulses are cleaned from dust, chaff, grits, etc., and then graded according to
size by a reel-type or rotating sieve-type cleaner.
• Pitting
• The clean pulses are passed through an emery roller machine. In this unit, husk
is cracked and scratched.
• This is to facilitate the subsequent oil penetration process for the loosening
of husk.
• The clearance between the emery roller and cage (housing) gradually narrows
from inlet to outlet. As the material is passed through the narrowing clearance,
mainly cracking and scratching of husk take place by friction between pulses
and emery.
• Some of the pulses are dehusked and split during this operation, which are
then separated by sieving.
• Pretreatment with Oil
• The scratched or pitted pulses are passed through a screw conveyor and
mixed with some edible oils like linseed oil (1.5–2.5 kg/ton of pulses).
• Then they are kept on then floor for about 12 h for diffusion of the oil.
• Conditioning
• Conditioning of pulses is done by alternate wetting and drying.
• After sundrying for a certain period, 3.5% moisture is added to the pulses
and tempered for about 8 h and again dried in the sun.
• Addition of moisture to the pulses can be accomplished by allowing water to
drop from an overhead tank on the pulses being passed through a screw
conveyor.
• The whole process of alternate wetting and drying is continued for 2–4 days
until all pulses are sufficiently conditioned.
• Pulses are finally dried to about 10%–12% moisture content.
• Dehusking and Splitting
• Emery rollers, known as Gota machine, are used for the dehusking of
conditioned pulses.
• About 50% pulses are dehusked in a single operation (in one pass).
• Dehusked pulses are split into two parts also.
The husk is aspirated off and dehusked split
pulses are separated by sieving.
• The tail pulses and unsplit dehusked pulses are
again conditioned and milled as mentioned
earlier.
• The whole process is repeated two to three times
until the remaining pulses are dehusked and
split.
• Polishing:
• Polish is given to the dehusked and split pulses
by treating them with a small quantity of oil
and/or water for the production of grade I
dehusked and split pulses known as
“dhal.”
 Commercial Milling of Pulses
by Traditional Method
• It is discussed earlier that the traditional milling of pulses are divided
into
two heads, namely, dry milling and wet milling.
• But both the processes involved two basic steps:
• (i) preconditioning of pulses by alternate wetting and
sundrying for loosening husk.
• (ii) subsequent milling by dehusking and splitting of the grains into
two cotyledons followed by aspiration and size separation using
suitable machines.
• The 100% dehusking and splitting of pulses can seldom be
achieved, particularly in cases of certain pulses like tur, black
gram, and green
• gram.
• Of them, “tur” is the most difficult pulses to dehusk and split.
• Only about 40%–50% “tur” grains are dehusked and split in the first
pass of preconditioning and milling.
• As sundrying is practiced, the traditional method is not only weather
dependent but also requires a large drying yard to match with the
milling capacity.
• As a result, it takes 3–7 days for complete processing of a batch of 20–
30 tons of pulses into “dhal.” Moreover, milling losses are also quite
high in the traditional method of milling of pulses.
• In general, simple reciprocating or rotary sieve cleaners are used for
cleaning while bucket elevators are used for elevating pulses.
• Pitting or scratching of pulses is done in a roller machine. A worm
mixer is used for oiling as well as watering of the pitted pulses.
• The machines used for dehusking are either power-driven disk-
type sheller or emery-coated roller machine, which is commonly
known as “gota” machine.
• The emery roller is encaged in a perforated cylinder. The whole
assembly is normally fixed at a horizontal position.
• Sometimes, either a cone-type polisher or a buffing machine is
employed for removal of the remaining last patches of husk and for
giving a fine polisher to the finished “dhal.”
• Blowers are aspiration of husk and powder from the products of
the disk sheller or roller machine.
• Split “dhals” are separated from the unhusked and husked
whole pulses with the help of sieve-type separators.
• Sieves also employed for grading of “dhals” mills vary from 68%
to
75%.
• It may be noted that the average potential
yields of common “dhals” vary from 85%
to 89% .
• These milling losses in the commercial
pulses mills can be attributed to small
brokens and fine powders formed during
scouring and simultaneous dehusking and
splitting operations.
• Modern CFTRI Method of Pulses Milling
• CFTRI method of “dhal” milling is described as follows.
 Cleaning
• Cleaning is done in rotary reel cleaners to remove all impurities from
pulses and separate them according to size.
 Preconditioning
• The cleaned pulses are conditioned in two passes in a dryer (LSU type)
using hot air at about 120°C for a certain period of time.
• After each pass, the hot pulses are tempered in the tempering bins
for about 6 h. The preconditioning of pulses helps in loosening husk
significantly.
 Dehusking
• The preconditioned pulses are conveyed to the pearler or dehusker
where almost all pulses are dehusked in a single operation. The
dehusked whole pulses “gota” are separated from split pulses and
mixture of husk, brokens, etc. (chuni-bhusi), and are received in a screw
conveyor where water is added at a controlled rate.
• The moistened, “gota” is then collected on the floor and allowed to
remain as such for about an hour.
• Lump Breaking
• Some of the moistened “gota” form into lumps of varying sizes. These
lumps are fed to the lump breaker to break them.
• Conditioning and Splitting
• After lump breaking, the gota is conveyed to LSU type
of dryer where it is exposed to hot air for a few hours.
The “gota” is thus dried to the proper moisture
level for splitting.
• The hot conditioned and dried dehusked whole
pulses are split in the emery roller.
• All of them are not split in one pass. The mixture is
graded into grade I pulses, dehusked whole pulses,
and small brokens.
• The unsplit dehusked pulses are again fed to
the conditioner for subsequent splitting.
Parching of pulses

• Legumes such as bengal gram and peas are

parched to give highly acceptable products.
• Bengal gram is tied in moist cloth and kept
overnight before it is parched.
• Peas are soaked in water for 5 min, dried partially
in the sun for 15 min and then parched.
• Salt and turmeric powder are sometimes added
to the steeping water or grains smeared with the
paste of the same before they are parched.
• Parching is done in hot iron vessel containing
sand at 190-200⁰C for 60-80 seconds.
• Parched bengal gram has been successfully
used in treatment of Protein calorie
malnutrition in children.