   #copyright

Bean

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Food and agriculture;
Plants

   Green beans
   Enlarge
   Green beans

   Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of
   Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) used for food or feed.

Name

   Bean originally meant the seed of the broad bean, but was later
   broadened to include members of the genus Phaseolus such as the common
   bean or haricot and the runner bean and the related genus Vigna. The
   term is now applied in a general way to many other related plants such
   as soybeans, peas, lentils, vetches and lupins. Bean can be used as a
   near synonym of pulse, an edible legume, though the term "pulses" is
   usually reserved for leguminous crops harvested for their dry grain.
   Pulses usually excludes crops mainly used for oil extraction (like
   soybean and peanut) or those used exclusively for sowing purposes (
   clover and alfalfa). Leguminous crops harvested green for food like
   snap beans, green peas etc. are classified as vegetable crops.

   In English usage beans sometimes also refer to seeds or other organs of
   non leguminosae, for example coffee beans, castor beans and cocoa beans
   (which resemble bean seeds), and vanilla beans (which resemble the
   pods).

Types of beans

     * Vicia
          + Faba or broad bean
            Vica faba (broad bean)
            Enlarge
            Vica faba (broad bean)
     * Vigna
          + Aconitifolia or Moth bean
          + Angularis or azuki bean
          + mungo or urad bean
          + radiata or mung bean
          + umbellatta or rice bean
          + unguiculata or cowpea (includes the black-eyed pea, yardlong
            bean and others)
     * Cicer
          + arietinum or chickpea
     * Pisum
          + sativum or pea
     * Lathyrus
     * Lathyrus sativus (Indian pea)
     * Lathyrus tuberosus (Tuberous pea)
     * Lens
          + culinaris or lentil
            Lentils
            Enlarge
            Lentils
     * Lablab
          + purpureus or hyacinth bean
     * Phaseolus
          + acutifolius or tepary bean
          + coccineus or runner bean
          + lunatus or lima bean
          + vulgaris or common bean (includes the pinto bean, kidney bean
            and many others)
     * Glycine
          + max or soybean
     * Psophocarpus
          + tetragonolobus or winged bean
            Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (winged bean)
            Enlarge
            Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (winged bean)
     * Cajanus
          + cajan or pigeon pea
     * Stizolobium
          + spp or velvet bean
     * Cyamopsis
          + tetragonoloba or guar
     * Canavalia
          + ensiformis or jack bean
     * Macrotyloma
          + M. uniflorum or horse gram
     * Lupinus or Lupin
          + L. mutabilis or tarwi
          + Erythrina or Coral bean

Cultural aspects

   The following traditional uses of beans refer to the broad bean.
     * In some folk legends, such as in Estonia and the common Jack and
       the Beanstalk story, magical beans grow tall enough to bring the
       hero to the clouds. The Grimm Brothers collected a story in which a
       bean splits its sides laughing at the failure of others.

     * Dreaming of a bean is sometimes said to be a sign of impending
       conflict, though others said they caused bad dreams.

     * Pliny the Elder claimed that beans act as a laxative. He may have
       been referring to the seeds of the castor oil plant, which contain
       oils used as laxatives in ancient India.

     * European folklore claims that planting beans on Good Friday or
       during the night-time is good luck.

     * " Beans Beans the Magical Fruit..." is a children's song about the
       flatulence often experienced after eating broad beans. The song is
       noteworthy for correctly identifying the bean as a fruit, not a
       vegetable.

Toxins

   Some raw beans, for example kidney beans, contain harmful toxins (
   lectins) which need to be removed, usually by various methods of
   soaking and cooking. The soaking water from kidney beans should be
   discarded before boiling, and some authorities recommend changing the
   water during cooking as well. Cooking beans in a slow cooker, because
   of the lower temperatures often used, may not destroy toxins even
   though the beans do not smell or taste 'bad' (though this should not be
   a problem if the food reaches boiling and stays there for some time)

Flatulence

   Many edible beans, including broad beans and soybeans, contain
   oligosaccharides, a type of sugar molecule also found in cabbage. An
   anti-oligosaccharide enzyme is necessary to properly digest these sugar
   molecules. As a normal human digestive tract does not contain any
   anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, consumed oligosaccharides are typically
   digested by bacteria in the large intestine. This digestion process
   produces flatulence-causing gasses as a byproduct.

   Some species of mold produce alpha-galactosidase, an
   anti-oligosaccharide enzyme, which humans can take to facilitate
   digestion of oligosaccharides in the small intestine. This enzyme,
   currently sold in the U.S. under the brand-name Beano, can be added to
   food or consumed separately.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
