Functional Uses of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Seed Storage Proteins

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important grain legume crop of tropics and subtropics. It is increasingly being accepted as a functional food and protein extender in developing countries. The seed contains 36% to 54% oil, 16% to 36% protein, and 10% to 20% carbohydrates with high amounts of P, Mg, Ca, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, vitamin E, resveratrol and amino acids. Seed contains 32 different proteins comprised of albumins and globulins. The two-globulin fractions, arachin and non-arachin, comprise approximately 87% of the peanut seed proteins. Peanut worldwide is mainly used for oil production, consumption as raw, roasted, baked products, peanut butter, peanut flour, extender in meat product formulations, confectionary and soups. Peanut proteins have many properties such as good solubility, foaming, water/oil binding, emulsification that make them useful in various food products. Very limited studies have been carried out in peanut functional properties, which has been reviewed in the present article. Adequate modifications can be done in protein functionality that are influenced by pH, temperature, pressure etc. However, some individuals develop severe IgE-mediated allergies to peanut seed proteins. Thus, methods to improve nutrition and reduce allergenicity have also been discussed. Within the last decade, manipulations have been done to alter peanut chemistry and improve nutritional quality of peanuts and peanut products. Hence, improved comprehensive understanding of functional properties and nutritional chemistry of peanut proteins can generate better source of food grain to meet nutritional requirement of growing population. In the present review, composition of peanut seed proteins, functional properties, nutritional components and nutraceutical value have been discussed with respect to beneficial aspects to health, reducing hunger and usage in food end products.

Relationships between resource availability and elevation vary between metrics creating gradients of nutritional complexity

Plant and animal community composition changes at higher elevations on mountains. Plant and animal species richness generally declines with elevation, but the shape of the relationship differs between taxa. There are several proposed mechanisms, including the productivity hypotheses; that declines in available plant biomass confers fewer resources to consumers, thus supporting fewer species. We investigated resource availability as we ascended three aspects of Helvellyn mountain, UK, measuring several plant nutritive metrics, plant species richness and biomass. We observed a linear decline in plant species richness as we ascended the mountain but there was a unimodal relationship between plant biomass and elevation. Generally, the highest biomass values at mid-elevations were associated with the lowest nutritive values, except mineral contents which declined with elevation. Intra-specific and inter-specific increases in nutritive values nearer the top and bottom of the mountain indicated that physiological, phenological and compositional mechanisms may have played a role. The shape of the relationship between resource availability and elevation was different depending on the metric. Many consumers actively select or avoid plants based on their nutritive values and the abundances of consumer taxa vary in their relationships with elevation. Consideration of multiple nutritive metrics and of the nutritional requirements of the consumer may provide a greater understanding of changes to plant and animal communities at higher elevations. We propose a novel hypothesis for explaining elevational diversity gradients, which warrants further study; the ‘nutritional complexity hypothesis’, where consumer species coexist due to greater variation in the nutritional chemistry of plants.

DETERMINATION OF NUTRITIONAL CHEMISTRY OF PUMPKIN SEEDS (Cucurbita spp, Cucurbitaceae ) COMMERCIALLY SALTED in Curitiba PR, BRAZIL

As abóboras (Cucurbita spp, Cucurbitaceae) são muito utilizadas na alimentação humana devido seu elevado valor nutricional, porém nem todas as suas partes são aproveitadas, como as sementes. São utilizadas há muito tempo na medicina popular como vermífugo. Fatores como propriedades nutricionais, sabor agradável ao paladar, fácil acesso e baixo custo são alguns fatores que contribuem para que sementes de abóbora façam parte da alimentação diária da população seja ela na forma de complemento ou como snacks. Pensando nisso verificou-se a composição química e nutricional da semente de abóbora (Cucurbita spp) comercializadas salgadas, para comprovar dados da literatura em relação aos seus efeitos, e a quantidade de sódio presente. O elevado teor de fibras encontrado (29,01g±0,28) sugere a eficácia das sementes de abóbora na ação hipoglicemiante e laxativa e o baixo teor de carboidratos (5,36g) sugere seu consumo como benéfico para diabéticos, visto que necessitam de dietas com baixos teores de carboidratos. No entanto, por serem estas comercializadas salgadas, seu consumo deve ser de forma moderada uma vez que uma porção perfaza 23% do valor diário permitido de sódio.