Legumes Faba beans

The faba bean, also known as field bean, horse bean and broad bean, is an annual legume that grows well in cool climates. It is well established as a feedstuff for horses and ruminants and is now receiving more attention as a feedstuff for poultry, particularly in Europe, because of the deficit in protein production. At the current time, the EU uses over 20 million t of protein feeds annually, but produces only 6 million t. The most suitable expansion in locally produced protein feedstuffs may be from crops of the legume family (beans, peas, lupins and soybeans). Field beans grow well in regions with mild winters and adequate summer rainfall and the beans store well for use on-farm. 

Faba beans contain several ANFs such as tannins, protease inhibitors (vicin/ convicin) and lectins. Use of low-vicin/convicin cultivars may allow substantial levels of faba beans to be included in poultry diets (Danner, 2003). The levels of trypsin inhibitor and lectin activities are low compared with other legume seeds and do not pose problems in poultry diets when faba beans are incorporated into diets at the levels shown below. Of most concern for poultry is the tannin fraction, which has been shown to depress digestibility of the protein and AA (Ortiz et al., 1993). Tannins in whole faba beans are associated with the seedcoat (testa), and the tannin content is related to the colour of the seedcoat (and flowers). Tannins are lower in white than in the colour-seeded varieties. 

The seeds cf many other species cf legumes are also eaten. These inclnde the chick pea Cicer arietinum, lentil Lens escidenta, common pea Pisuni sativuni, broad or faba bean Viciafaba, cow pea Vigna sinensis, common bean P. vulgaris, mung bean Pkaseolus aureus, Lima bean P. lunatus, and scarlet runner bean P. mult lorus. The entire pod of the carob Ceratonia sili-qua can be eaten and is similar to a candy because cf the naturally large concentratim of si ar that it contains. 

Cereal grains, cereal by-products (wheat milling by-products and gluten feed), legume and oil seeds (pea, lupin, faba bean, full fat rapeseed and full fat sunflower seed), oil seed meals (groundnut, rapeseed, linseed, sunflower, copra, sesame and soybean), dehydrated sugar beet pulp, dehydrated potato, carob and molasses. 

Legume and Cottonseed, Faba bean, Faba bean. Linseed, Lupin, Lupin, Pea, Pea, Rapeseed,... 

Cultivation of legumes (fava bean, pea, lupine) can improve soil fertility, reduce supply of nitrogen (N) fertiliser and, due to the tannins presence (Woodward et al, 2001), restrict CH production. In addition, legume grain, in some agricultural condition, such as Mediterranean area, can replace partially or totally soybean in ruminant diets (Cutrignelli et al, 2008). In this study the in vitro fermentation characteristics of six diets for ruminants with fava bean (Vicia faba minor) or solvent extracted (s.e.) soybean as protein sources were studied. 

Syn. Horse Bean Starch, Faba bean starch G. Ackerbohnenstarke R amidon de ftve B. granules are deposited in the cotyledons of various bean cultivars Vida faba, L.) as reserve polysaccharides (legume starches) together with oligosaccharides and proteins. 

These proteins occur in the seeds of many plants but are especially common in the Fabaceae (Leguminosae) (more than 600 species) and the Euphorbiaceae (lectins also occur in other organisms such as fungi, bacteria, and animals). In legumes, lectins are usually found in the cotyledons (Liener, 1991). Well-known plant lectins are concanavalin A, from jack beans Canavalia ensiformis), favin, from the broad bean (Vida faba), and phasin, from the kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (Ramshaw, 1982), The toxicity of lectins differs considerably (Liener, 1991 Liener et al, 1986). Data for lectins are given in Liener et al. (1986) and Lis and Sharon (1981). 

Most work on carbohydrate and protein reserve deposition in dicots has been carried out using commercially important non-endospermic legumes, particularly the garden pea Pisum sativum), field pea (Pisum arvense) and broad bean, field bean or horse bean Vida faba), with fewer studies on the french bean or bushbean Phaseolus vulgaris) and soybean Glycine max). 

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