Bean

A bean is the seed of one of several

genera of the flowering plant family
Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables
for human or animal food.[1] They can be
cooked in many different ways,[2]
including boiling, frying, and baking, and
are used in many traditional dishes
throughout the world.
Heirloom calypso beans (also called "yin yang")

"Painted Pony" dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Bean plant

Beans and plantain

Terminology
The word "bean" and its Germanic
cognates (e.g. German Bohne) have
existed in common use in West
Germanic languages since before the
12th century,[3] referring to broad beans,
chickpeas, and other pod-borne seeds.
This was long before the New World
genus Phaseolus was known in Europe.
After Columbian-era contact between
Europe and the Americas, use of the
word was extended to pod-borne seeds
of Phaseolus, such as the common bean
and the runner bean, and the related
genus Vigna. The term has long been
applied generally to many other seeds of
similar form,[3][4] such as Old World
soybeans, peas, other vetches, and
lupins, and even to those with slighter
resemblances, such as coffee beans,
vanilla beans, castor beans, and cocoa
beans. Thus the term "bean" in general
usage can refer to a host of different
species.[5]

Local bean from Nepal.

Seeds called "beans" are often included

among the crops called "pulses"
(legumes),[3] although a narrower
prescribed sense of "pulses" reserves the
word for leguminous crops harvested for
their dry grain. The term bean usually
excludes legumes with tiny seeds and
which are used exclusively for forage,
hay, and silage purposes (such as clover
and alfalfa). The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization defines
"BEANS, DRY" (item code 176)[5] as
applicable only to species of Phaseolus.
However, in the past, several species,
including Vigna angularis (adzuki bean),
V. mungo (black gram), V. radiata (green
gram), and V. aconitifolia (moth bean),
were classified as Phaseolus and later
reclassified, and general usage is not
governed by that definition.[6][7]

Cultivation
Field beans (broad beans, Vicia faba), ready for
harvest

Unlike the closely related pea, beans are

a summer crop that needs warm
temperatures to grow. Legumes are
capable of nitrogen fixation and hence
need less fertiliser than most plants.
Maturity is typically 55–60 days from
planting to harvest.[8] As the bean pods
mature, they turn yellow and dry up, and
the beans inside change from green to
their mature colour. As a vine, bean
plants need external support, which may
take the form of special "bean cages" or
poles. Native Americans customarily
grew them along with corn and squash
(the so-called Three Sisters),[9] with the
tall cornstalks acting as support for the
beans.

In more recent times, the so-called "bush

bean" has been developed which does
not require support and has all its pods
develop simultaneously (as opposed to
pole beans which develop gradually).[10]
This makes the bush bean more practical
for commercial production.
Bean creeper

History

The Beaneater (1580–1590) by Annibale Carracci

Baked beans on toast (with egg)

Beans are one of the longest-cultivated

plants. Broad beans, also called fava
beans, in their wild state the size of a
small fingernail, were gathered in
Afghanistan and the Himalayan
foothills.[11] In a form improved from
naturally occurring types, they were
grown in Thailand from the early seventh
millennium BCE, predating ceramics.[12]
They were deposited with the dead in
ancient Egypt. Not until the second
millennium BCE did cultivated, large-
seeded broad beans appear in the
Aegean, Iberia and transalpine Europe.[13]
In the Iliad (8th century BCE) there is a
passing mention of beans and chickpeas
cast on the threshing floor.[14]

Beans were an important source of

protein throughout Old and New World
history, and still are today.

The oldest-known domesticated beans in

the Americas were found in Guitarrero
Cave, an archaeological site in Peru, and
dated to around the second millennium
BCE.[15] However, genetic analyses of the
common bean Phaseolus show that it
originated in Mesoamerica, and
subsequently spread southward, along
with maize and squash, traditional
companion crops.[16]
Most of the kinds commonly eaten fresh
or dried, those of the genus Phaseolus,
come originally from the Americas, being
first seen by a European when
Christopher Columbus, while exploring
what may have been the Bahamas, found
them growing in fields. Five kinds of
Phaseolus beans were domesticated[17]
by pre-Columbian peoples: common
beans (P. vulgaris) grown from Chile to
the northern part of what is now the
United States, and lima and sieva beans
(P. lunatus), as well as the less widely
distributed teparies (P. acutifolius),
scarlet runner beans (P. coccineus) and
polyanthus beans (P. polyanthus)[18] One
especially famous use of beans by pre-
Columbian people as far north as the
Atlantic seaboard is the "Three Sisters"
method of companion plant cultivation:

In the New World, many tribes would

grow beans together with maize (corn),
and squash. The corn would not be
planted in rows as is done by European
agriculture, but in a checkerboard/hex
fashion across a field, in separate
patches of one to six stalks each.
Beans would be planted around the
base of the developing stalks, and
would vine their way up as the stalks
grew. All American beans at that time
were vine plants, "bush beans" having
been bred only more recently. The
cornstalks would work as a trellis for
the beans, and the beans would
provide much-needed nitrogen for the
corn.
Squash would be planted in the spaces
between the patches of corn in the
field. They would be provided slight
shelter from the sun by the corn, would
shade the soil and reduce evaporation,
and would deter many animals from
attacking the corn and beans because
their coarse, hairy vines and broad,
stiff leaves are difficult or
uncomfortable for animals such as
deer and raccoons to walk through,
crows to land on, etc.
Dry beans come from both Old World
varieties of broad beans (fava beans)
and New World varieties (kidney, black,
cranberry, pinto, navy/haricot).

Beans are a heliotropic plant, meaning

that the leaves tilt throughout the day to
face the sun. At night, they go into a
folded "sleep" position.

Types

Types of beans in a supermarket

Currently, the world genebanks hold
about 40,000 bean varieties, although
only a fraction are mass-produced for
regular consumption.[19]

Beans, average, canned, sugarfree

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 334 kJ (80 kcal)

Carbohydrates 10.5 g

Fat 0.5 g

Protein 9.6 g
Units
μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams
IU = International units
†Percentages are roughly approximated
using US recommendations for adults.
Some bean types include:

Vicia
Vicia faba (broad bean or fava
bean)

Vicia faba or broad beans, known in the US as fava

beans

Phaseolus
Phaseolus acutifolius (tepary
bean)
Phaseolus coccineus (runner
bean)
 Phaseolus lunatus (lima bean)
Phaseolus vulgaris (common
bean; includes the pinto bean,
kidney bean, black bean,
Appaloosa bean as well as green
beans, and many others)
Phaseolus polyanthus (a.k.a. P.
dumosus, recognized as a
separate species in 1995)
Vigna
Vigna aconitifolia (moth bean)
Vigna angularis (adzuki bean)
Vigna mungo (urad bean)
Vigna radiata (mung bean)
Vigna subterranea (Bambara bean
or ground-bean)
 Vigna umbellata (ricebean)
Vigna unguiculata (cowpea; also
includes the black-eyed pea,
yardlong bean and others)
Cicer
Cicer arietinum (chickpea or
garbanzo bean)
Pisum
Pisum sativum (pea)
Lathyrus
Lathyrus sativus (Indian pea)
Lathyrus tuberosus (tuberous pea)
Lens
 Lentils

Lens culinaris (lentil)

Lablab
Lablab purpureus (hyacinth bean)

Hyacinth beans

Glycine
Glycine max (soybean)
Psophocarpus
Psophocarpus tetragonolobus
(winged bean)
Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (winged bean)

Cajanus
Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea)
Mucuna
Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean)
Cyamopsis
Cyamopsis tetragonoloba or (guar)
Canavalia
Canavalia ensiformis (jack bean)
Canavalia gladiata (sword bean)
Macrotyloma
 Macrotyloma uniflorum (horse
gram)
Lupinus (lupin)
Lupinus mutabilis (tarwi)
Lupinus albus (lupini bean)
Arachis
Arachis hypogaea (peanut)

Properties

Nutrients

Beans are high in protein, complex

carbohydrates, folate, and iron.[20] Beans
also have significant amounts of fiber
and soluble fiber, with one cup of cooked
beans providing between nine and
13 grams of fiber.[20] Soluble fiber can
help lower blood cholesterol.[21]

This figure shows the grams of fiber and protein per

100 gram serving of each legume. The size of the
circle is proportional to its iron content. From this
view, lentil and kidney beans contain the most and
soybeans and peas have the least nutrients per
serving.

The Canadian government recommends

that adults have up to two (female), and
three (male) servings. 3/4 cup of cooked
beans provide one serving.[22]

Antinutrients

Many types of bean contain significant

amounts of antinutrients that inhibit
some enzyme processes in the body.
Phytic acid and phytates, present in
grains, nuts, seeds and beans, interfere
with bone growth and interrupt vitamin D
metabolism. Pioneering work on the
effect of phytic acid was done by Edward
Mellanby from 1939.[23][24]

Flatulence
Many edible beans, including broad
beans, navy beans, kidney beans and
soybeans, contain oligosaccharides
(particularly raffinose and stachyose), 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 gases such as methane as a
byproduct, which are then released as
flatulence.[25][26]
Processing the beans, such as by boiling,
soaking, cooking, can leach the
indigestible sugars from the beans and
significantly reduce, if not entirely
eliminate the problem. In addition
enzyme pills are available.

Health concerns

Toxins

Some kinds of raw beans contain a

harmful, tasteless toxin: the lectin
phytohaemagglutinin, which must be
removed by cooking. Red kidney beans
are particularly toxic, but other types also
pose risks of food poisoning. A
recommended method is to boil the
beans for at least ten minutes;
undercooked beans may be more toxic
than raw beans.[27]

Cooking beans, without bringing them to

a boil, in a slow cooker at a temperature
well below boiling may not destroy
toxins.[27] A case of poisoning by butter
beans used to make falafel was reported;
the beans were used instead of
traditional broad beans or chickpeas,
soaked and ground without boiling, made
into patties, and shallow fried.[28]

Bean poisoning is not well known in the

medical community, and many cases
may be misdiagnosed or never reported;
figures appear not to be available. In the
case of the UK National Poisons
Information Service, available only to
health professionals, the dangers of
beans other than red beans were not
flagged as of 2008.[28]

Fermentation is used in some parts of

Africa to improve the nutritional value of
beans by removing toxins. Inexpensive
fermentation improves the nutritional
impact of flour from dry beans and
improves digestibility, according to
research co-authored by Emire Shimelis,
from the Food Engineering Program at
Addis Ababa University.[29] Beans are a
major source of dietary protein in Kenya,
Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zambia.[30]

Bacterial infection from bean sprouts

It is common to make beansprouts by

letting some types of bean, often mung
beans, germinate in moist and warm
conditions; beansprouts may be used as
ingredients in cooked dishes, or eaten
raw or lightly cooked. There have been
many outbreaks of disease from
bacterial contamination, often by
salmonella, listeria, and Escherichia coli,
of beansprouts not thoroughly cooked,[31]
some causing significant mortality.[32]
Production

Lablab bean and bean flower cultivated in West

Bengal, India

The production data for legumes are

published by FAO in three categories:

1. Pulses dry: all mature and dry seeds

of leguminous plants except
soybeans and groundnuts.
2. Oil crops: soybeans and
groundnuts.
 3. Fresh vegetable: immature green
fresh fruits of leguminous plants.

The following is a summary of FAO

data.[33]
Production of Legumes (million metric tons)
Ratio
crops
1961 1981 2001 2015 2016 2016 Remarks
[FAO code][34]
/1961

Per capita production had

Total Pulses (dry) decreased.
40.78 41.63 56.23 77.57 81.80 2.01
[1726] (Population increase was
2.4 ×)

Oil crops (dry)

Drastic increase driven by

Soybeans [236] 26.88 88.53 177.02 323.20 334.89 12.46 the demand for animal
feeds and oil.

Groundnuts, with
14.13 20.58 35.82 45.08 43.98 3.11
shell [242]

Fresh vegetables (80 - 90% water)

Beans, green
2.63 4.09 10.92 23.12 23.60 8.96
[414]

Peas, green [417] 3.79 5.66 12.41 19.44 19.88 5.25

Main crops of "Pulses, Total (dry)" are

"Beans, dry [176]" 26.83 million tons,
"Peas, dry [187]" 14.36 million tons,
"Chick peas [191]" 12.09 million tons,
"Cow peas [195]" 6.99 million tons,
"Lentils [201]" 6.32 million tons, "Pigeon
peas [197]" 4.49 million tons, "Broad
beans, horse beans [181]" 4.46 million
tons. In general, the consumption of
pulses per capita has been decreasing
since 1961. Exceptions are lentils and
cowpeas.

Bean flower in Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Top producers, Pulses, Total [1726][35]
(million metric tons)
Country 2016 Share Remarks

Total 81.80 100%

1 India 17.56 21.47%

2 Canada 8.20 10.03%

3 Myanmar 6.57 8.03%

4 China 4.23 5.17%

5 Nigeria 3.09 3.78%

6 Russia 2.94 3.60%

7 Ethiopia 2.73 3.34%

8 Brazil 2.62 3.21%

9 Australia 2.52 3.09%

10 USA 2.44 2.98%

11 Niger 2.06 2.51%

12 Tanzania 2.00 2.45%

Others 24.82 30.34%

The world leader in production of Dry

Beans (Phaseolus spp).[36] is Myanmar
(Burma), followed by India and Brazil. In
Africa, the most important producer is
Tanzania.[37]
Top ten Dry Beans (Phaseolus spp) producers—2013
Production
Country Footnote
(tonnes)

 Myanmar 3,800,000 F

 India 3,630,000

 Brazil 2,936,444 A

 People's Republic of China 1,400,000 *

 Mexico 1,294,634

 Tanzania 1,150,000 F

 United States 1,110,668

 Kenya 529,265 F

 Uganda 461,000 *

 Rwanda 438,236

 World 23,139,004 A

No symbol = official figure, P = official

figure, F = FAO estimate, * =
Unofficial/Semi-official/mirror data, C =
Calculated figure A = Aggregate (may
include official, semi-official or
estimates)

Source: UN Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO)[38]
See also
Baked beans
List of bean soups
Fassoulada – a bean soup
List of edible seeds
List of legume dishes

References
1. "Beans and peas are unique foods |
ChooseMyPlate" .
www.choosemyplate.gov. Retrieved
24 January 2020.
2. Clark, Mellisa. "How to Cook
Beans" . New York Times Cooking.
New York Times. Retrieved
3 January 2020.
3. Merriam-Webster, Merriam-
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary ,
Merriam-Webster
4. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, The
American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language , Houghton Mifflin
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5. "Definition And Classification Of
Commodities (See Chapter 4)" . FAO,
United Nations. 1994.
6. Merriam-Webster BEAN
7. Encyclopedia Britannica Bean
8. Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (1
October 2013). Early Named
 Soybean Varieties in the United
States and Canada: Extensively
Annotated Bibliography and
Sourcebook . Soyinfo Center.
ISBN 9781928914600. Retrieved
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9. Schneider, Meg. New York Yesterday
& Today . Voyageur Press.
ISBN 9781616731267. Retrieved
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10. "The Germination Of a Bean" (PDF).
Microscopy-uk.org.uk. Retrieved
18 November 2017.
11. Kaplan, pp. 27 ff
12. Gorman, CF (1969). "Hoabinhian: A
pebble-tool complex with early plant
associations in southeast Asia".
Science. 163 (3868): 671–3.
Bibcode:1969Sci...163..671G .
doi:10.1126/science.163.3868.671 .
PMID 17742735 . S2CID 34052655 .
13. Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf
Domestication of Plants in the Old
World Oxford University Press, 2012,
ISBN 0199549060, p. 114.
14. "And as in some great threshing-floor
go leaping From a broad pan the
black-skinned beans or peas." (Iliad
xiii, 589).
15. Chazan, Michael (2008). World
Prehistory and Archaeology:
Pathways through Time. Pearson
Education, Inc. ISBN 978-0-205-
40621-0.
16. Bitocchi, Elena; Nanni, Laura;
Bellucci, Elisa; Rossi, Monica;
Giardini, Alessandro; Zeuli, Pierluigi
Spagnoletti; Logozzo, Giuseppina;
Stougaard, Jens; McClean, Phillip;
Attene, Giovanna; Papa, Roberto (3
April 2012). "Mesoamerican origin of
the common bean (Phaseolus
vulgaris L.) is revealed by sequence
data" . Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. 109 (14):
E788–E796.
 doi:10.1073/pnas.1108973109 .
PMC 3325731 . PMID 22393017 .
17. Kaplan, p. 30: Domestication,
besides involving selection for larger
seed size, also involved selection for
pods that did not curl and open when
ripe, scattering the beans they
contained..
18. Kaplan, p. 30
19. Laura McGinnis and Jan Suszkiw,
ARS. Breeding Better Beans.
Agricultural Research magazine.
June 2006.
20. Mixed Bean Salad (information and
recipe) from The Mayo Clinic Healthy
Recipes Archived 15 October 2008
 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed
February 2010.
21. Dietary fiber: Essential for a healthy
diet . MayoClinic.com (17 November
2012). Retrieved on 2012-12-18.
22. "How Many Food Guide Servings of
Meat and Alternatives Do I Need? -
Canada.ca" . Hc-sc.gc.ca. Retrieved
18 November 2017.
23. Harrison, DC; Mellanby, E (October
1939). "Phytic acid and the rickets-
producing action of cereals" .
Biochem. J. 33 (10): 1660–1680.1.
doi:10.1042/bj0331660 .
PMC 1264631 . PMID 16747083 .
24. Ramiel Nagel (26 March 2010).
"Living With Phytic Acid - Weston A
Price" . The Weston A Price
Foundation. Retrieved 23 January
2016.
25. Harold McGee (2003). Food and
Cooking. Simon & Schuster. p. 486.
ISBN 978-0684843285. "Many
legumes, especially soy, navy and
lima beans, cause a sudden increase
in bacterial activity and gas
production a few hours after they're
consumed. This is because they
contain large amounts of
carbohydrates that human digestive
enzymes can't convert into
absorbable sugars. These
 carbohydrates therefore leave the
upper intestine unchanged and enter
the lower reaches, where our
resident bacterial population does
the job we are unable to do."
26. Peter Barham (2001). The Science of
Cooking . Springer. p. 14 . ISBN 978-
3-540-67466-5. "we do not possess
any enzymes that are capable of
breaking down larger sugars, such
as raffinose etc. These 3, 4 and 5
ring sugars are made by plants
especially as part of the energy
storage system in seeds and beans.
If these sugars are ingested, they
can't be broken down in the
intestines; rather, they travel into the
 colon, where various bacteria digest
them – and in the process produce
copious amounts of carbon dioxide
gas"
27. "Foodborne Pathogenic
Microorganisms and Natural Toxins
Handbook: Phytohaemagglutinin" .
Bad Bug Book. United States Food
and Drug Administration. Archived
from the original on 9 July 2009.
Retrieved 11 July 2009.
28. Vicky Jones (15 September 2008).
"Beware of the beans: How beans
can be a surprising source of food
poisoning" . The Independent.
Retrieved 23 January 2016.
29. Shimelis, Emire Admassu; Rakshit,
Sudip Kumar (2008). "Influence of
natural and controlled fermentations
on α-galactosides, antinutrients and
protein digestibility of beans
(Phaseolus vulgaris L.)".
International Journal of Food
Science & Technology. 43 (4): 658–
665. doi:10.1111/j.1365-
2621.2006.01506.x . ISSN 1365-
2621 .
30. Summary: Fermentation 'improves
nutritional value of beans' (Sub
Saharan Africa page, Science and
Development Network website).
Paper: Influence of natural and
controlled fermentations on α-
 galactosides, antinutrients and
protein digestibility of beans
(Phaseolus vulgaris L.)
31. "Sprouts: What You Should Know" .
Foodsafety.gov. Retrieved
23 January 2016.
32. "Shiga toxin-producing E. coli
(STEC): Update on outbreak in the
EU (27 July 2011, 11:00)" . European
Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control. 27 July 2011. Archived from
the original on 15 March 2017.
33. FAO STAT Production /Crops
34. see Legume#Commodity
Classification
35. all legumes dry
36. Dry Beans does not include broad
beans, dry peas, chickpea, lentil
37. FAO Pulses and Derived Products
38. "Major Food And Agricultural
Commodities And Producers –
Countries By Commodity" . Fao.org.
Archived from the original on 6
September 2015. Retrieved
2 February 2015.

Bibliography
Kaplan, Lawrence (2008). "Legumes in
the History of Human Nutrition" . In
DuBois, Christine; Tan, Chee-Beng;
Mintz, Sidney (eds.). The World of Soy.
NUS Press. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-9971-
 69-413-5. Retrieved 18 December
2012.

External links

Look up bean in Wiktionary, the free

dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Beans.

Everett H. Bickley Collection, 1919–

1980 Archives Center, National
Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution.
Discovery Online: The Skinny On Why
Beans Give You Gas
 Fermentation improves nutritional
value of beans
Cook's Thesaurus on Beans

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