Can Ins/. Food Sei. Teehnol. J. Vol. 11, No. 2, pp.

144-160, 1988

REVIEW

Composition and Quality of Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik): A

Review
R.S. Bhatty
Crop Development Centre,
Department of Crop Science and Plant Ecology,
University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Sask, Canada S7N OWO

Abstract ewan and this increased to 200,000 ha in 1987. Such

Lentil is used primarily in human foods. Therefore, cooking, nutri- a dramatic increase in lentil production was largely due
tional and seed qualities are the foremost criteria. This article reviews to favorable price compared with depressed cereal
recent and pertinent literature on the chemical composition and qual- prices and research conducted at the Crop Develop-
ity of lentils. Lentil is a "clean crop", relatively free of anti-
nutritional factors, low in flatulence, and produces a low post- ment Centre, University of Saskatchewan, which deve-
prandial glycemic index in normal and diabetic volunteers, Although loped a package of agronomic practices and registered
low in methionine and cystine, lentil is an excellent source of pro- two cultivars of lentil adapted to Prairie conditions.
tein and amino acids to complement cereal protein, particularly Laird is an extra-large-seeded, yellow cotyledon,
wheat, with which it is most often eaten in the developing coun-
tries. Both hard shell and hard-to-cook conditions have been
Chilean type of lentil (Slinkard and Bhatty, 1979), and
observed in lentil grown under different environmental conditions Eston is a small-seeded, yellow cotyledon, Persian type
but the mechanisms involved in these conditions have not been inves- of lentil (Slinkard, 1981). Efforts are now underway
tigated. Lentil has a high lipoxygenase activity (second only to soy- to develop a red cotyledon, Persian type of lentil.
bean among the legumes), which may result in the production of
off-flavors during processing or storage under adverse conditions.
Laird is now the preferred cultivar for the export
market and is suited for processing into soup or for
the production of split lentils (dahl) used on the Indian
Resume sub-continent. Soup made from Laird lentil by a com-
La lentille sert avant tout en alimentation humaine, Par conse- mercial processor was of lighter color (preferable),
quent, les criteres les plus importants sont les qualites de cuisson,
de nutrition et de semence. Cet article passe en revue la litterature large-seeded and of pleasing appearance, without sepa-
recente et pertinente sur la composition chimique et la qualite des ration of hulls from the meat (Bhatty et al., 1983). In
lentilles. La lentille est une plante saine relativement depourvue de eastern Canada a few lentils are processed into soup
facteurs antinutritionnels, pauvre en facteurs de flatulence, et pro- but the potential for consumption of canned lentils by
duit un faible indice glycemique, apres diner, chez les sujet normaux
et diabetiques. Meme si elle est pauvre en methionine et en cystine,
ethnic Canadians appears limited. The promotion of
la lentille est une excellente source de proteine et d'acides amines lentil as a complementary dietary ingredient for the
pour completer les proteines de cereales, le ble en particulier, avec Canadian population at large is a long-term objective
lequel elle est le plus sou vent consommee dans les pays en voie de of the lentil industry. Lentil has been pin-milled and
developpement. On a observe les defauts de cosse dure et de cuis- air-classified into starch and protein fractions for
son difficile chez des lentilles cultivees dans des conditions environ-
mentales differentes mais les mecanismes impliques dans ces con- incorporation into food and feed products and for
ditions n'ont pas ete elucides. La lentille est riche en lipoxygenase industrial utilization, particularly starch (Sosulski and
(deuxieme seulement au soja parmi les legumineuses) qui peut cau- Youngs, 1979; Tyler et al., 1981, 1984). Although rela-
ser la production de mauvaises saveurs Jors de conditionnement ou tively pure protein and starch fractions can be obtained
du stockage dans des conditions defavorables.
from lentil by mechanical separation, no commercial
use has yet been found for these products.
Introduction Lentil is grown on about 2.5 million ha in the world
Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is now a permanent and the Indian sub-continent (India, Pakistan and
part of the Prairie agricultural scene. Lentil cultiva- Bangladesh) produces about 38070 of the world produc-
tion in Canada, unlike many other countries, is of tion. Although India is the largest producer (500 x
recent origin. The crop was introduced into southern 103 metric tonnes), production is falling and lentil
Manitoba and Saskatchewan during the grain surplus may constitute less than 5070 of the total Indian pulse
years of the early 1970's (Slinkard and Buchan, 1980). production (Salunkhe et al., 1985).
In 1971 , 2,000 hectares (ha) were grown in Saskatch- Lentil is sometimes called "poor man's meat". Such

Copyright () 1988 Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology

144
a description originated in ancient Europe. In India lentil seed lots grown in India. This range was gener-
and many other countries, lentil is equally relished by ally similar to a range of 19.5 to 31.0% in protein con-
all levels of society. Nevertheless, there may exist a tent of 101 samples of three cultivars of lentil grown
relationship between poverty and lentil consumption across the three Prairie Provinces of Canada in 1980
as in earlier times, which led the ancient Greeks to and 1981 (Bhatty, 1984). Another range of 23.4 to
describe the "nouveau rich": "Now he does not like 36.4% has been reported in 1688 accessions of lentil
lentils anymore" (Aykroyd et al., 1982). (Hawtin et al., 1977).
This paper reviews pertinent literature on the chem-
ical composition and quality of the cultivated lentil. (i) Mineral Matter
The objective was to consolidate the available infor- The mineral matter of lentil contains 0.28 to 0.63%
mation for easy reference by lentil researchers. phosphorus (mean 0.45%), 0.04 to 0.16% calcium
(mean 0.07%), 0.08 to 14% magnesium (mean 0.10%),
Structure 0.02 to 0.18% sodium (mean 0.04%) and 0.88 to
1.44% potassium (mean 1.16%), based on analysis of
The structure of lentil seed is similar to that of other
101 samples of lentil grown under widely varying
legumes (Aykroyd et al., 1982; Salunkhe et al., 1985).
environmental conditions (Bhatty, 1984). Mineral
Scanning electron microscopy of five cultivars of len-
composition (nine elements) of one sample each of raw
til has confirmed the similarity, although lentil seed
and cooked split lentil has been reported by Meiners
coat was markedly thinner than seed coats of many
et al., 1976, and phosphorus, calcium and iron com-
other food legume (Hughes and Swanson, 1986). The
position of lentil by Claudio et al. (1983) and Singh
lentil seed has three main components: the seed coat,
et al. (1968). Their data, except that for split lentil
cotyledons and the embryo (including the radicle,
(dehulled), generally fall within the ranges obtained
plumule and embryonic axis), forming 8010, 90% and
for Canadian-grown lentil. In lentil, 93% of the phos-
2%, respectively, of the total seed weight (Singh et al.,
phorus, 60% of the calcium and 79% of the iron are
1968). The cotyledons are the major component of len-
present in the cotyledon fraction (Singh et al., 1968).
til seed and its nutrient reservoir and dehulling of len-
On cooking of split lentils, about one-half to two-
til seeds, including removal of the embryo, would not
thirds of the nine mineral elements were lost in the
greatly reduce nutrient concentration.
leach water (Meiners et al., 1976), but nutrient reten-
tion, particularly of protein, ether extract, and some
Composition of the vitamins, was much greater in whole cooked len-
Although proximate composition of lentil has been til (Haytowitz and Mathews, 1983). However, nutrient
widely reported in the literature (Singh et al., 1968, retention in cooked lentil may be governed by factors
Sosulski et al., 1976; Naivikul and D'Appolonia 1978; such as seed size, porosity of the seed coat, release of
Shahen et al., 1978; Abu-Shakra and Tannous 1981; minerals and vitamins from seed constituents as well
Dhindsa et al., 1985), the data are not always com- as contamination of minerals from external sources.
parable due to differences in genotypes, environments,
methods of analysis and in many cases analysis of a (ii) Lipids
single sample. Canadian-grown lentil averages on a dry Lentil seeds contain < 1.0% ether extract deter-
basis 28.6% protein (Nx6.25), 3.1 % ash, 4.9% crude mined either by a Soxtec or Goldfisch extraction
fiber, < 1.0% ether extract, 44.3% starch (determined apparatus (Bhatty, 1985), although values 2 to 3 times
by polarimetry), 36.1010 amylose (iodine affinity), greater have been reported elsewhere (Singh et al.,
63.1 % total carbohydrates (by difference) and 4.2 1968; Shahen et al., 1978; Gupta, 1983). Because of
kcal/g gross energy determined by bomb calorimetry low ether extract, the gross energy of lentil (4.2 kcal/g)
(Bhatty et al., 1976). Table 1 shows a large range in is similar to that of wheat and barley (Bhatty and Wu,
protein content of lentil. Swaminathan and lain (1975) 1974). Almost all (90%) of the ether extract is present
reported a range of 20.4 to 30.5% in protein among in the cotyledons, 6% in the embryo and only 2% in
the seed coat (Singh et al., 1968). The major lipid frac-
tion in lentil is probably the neutral lipid (triglycer-
Table I. Proximate composition of lentil.
ide) fraction, although the proportion of neutrallipids
Component Percent of seed, dry basis and the conjugated lipid fractions (phospholipids and
(I) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) glycolipids) has not been reported.
Protein (N x 6.25) 28.6 29.0 32.1 29.6 27.9 28.0 Lentillipids may be present in the cotyledons, prob-
Mineral matter 3.1 3.0 3.1 2.4 3.0 2.9 ably in spherosomes or in lipid-containing vesicles. It
Fiber 4.4 4.0 4.8 3.2 2.0* 3.8
Ether extract 0.7 1.8 3.8 3.1 2.8 1.2 is possible that lentil lipids may not be storage lipids
Nitrogen-free extract 63.1 62.3 67.3 61.7 64.3 63.9 but a component of the membrane. Lentillipids have
Sources: no commercial value and, thus, they have not been
I. Bhatty et al. (1976); mean of 6 samples investigated in any detail. Little evidence has been
2. Shahen et al. (1978); mean of 9 samples obtained on the role of lipids in causing off-flavors
3. Dhindsa et al. (1985); mean of 6 samples in lentils during storage or under various processing
4. Singh et al. (1968); single sample
5. Naivikul and D' Appolonia, (1978); single sample (*acid deter- conditions, although as many as 22 volatile compounds
gent fiber) (acids, ethers, ketones, aldehydes and alcohols) have
6. Abu-Shakra and Tannous (1981); single sample been identified in lentil (Lovegren et al., 1979). The

Can. Inst. Food Sci. Technol. J. Vo!. 21, No. 2, 1988 Bhatty I 145
 volatile compounds arc derived from enzymic (and an iodine binding capacity of 20.0%), and 20.7 to
non-enzymic) oxidative degradation of cis, eis-l,4 pen- 38.5% amylose determined by the blue value proce-
tadiene (linoleic acid) to eis, trans-hydroperoxide. The dure of Gilbert and Spragg (1964). Lentil starch con-
major, naturally-occurring enzyme system involved in taining 20.7% amylose is unusual. Although cultivar
peroxidation is lipoxygenase which is widely dis- and growth conditions of lentil may affect amylose
tributed in legumes (Reynolds and Klein, 1982). Blain content, the higher values reported are more typical
et al. (1959) compared the lipoxydase (lipoxygenase) of lentil starches. Nevertheless, the amylose content
activities of lentil and soybean, a rich source of this of lentil starch may range widely. The amylopectin
enzyme, using three different assay procedures. The content of lentil starch varies inversely with the amy-
range of the enzyme activity in lentil sometimes over- lose content.
lapped that in soybean. Later, Eskin and Henderson Other properties of lentil starch reported in the
(1977) partially purified lipoxygenase from lentil and above studies are: water-binding capacity (92.4 to
studied some of its properties. The enzyme was a 98.0%) higher than those of faba bean, pea and
tetramer (four isoenzymes), had a molecular weight Phaseolus bean starches, but not much different than
of 110,000 kO, a pH optimum of 6.3 (linolenic acid that of wheat starch (83.0 to 91 %); gelatinization or
substrate), which classified it as type-2 lipoxygenase, birefringence end point temperature range 64-69-74°C
typical of the lipoxygenases present in other plants. (initial, midpoint, end); and restricted swelling power
Chiang and McCurdy (1985) determined the lipox- resulting in a type C Brabender curve (no pasting peak
ygenase activity of ten species and four biotypes of at 95°C), typical of high amylose corn starches con-
legumes, and found that lentil contained high enzyme taining 55 to 70% amylose (Schoch and Maywald,
activity (next to soybean), about 4 to 5 times higher 1968), or of chemically cross-linked starches. Such
than in pea or faba bean. Despite such high concen- starches have only limited uses in food applications.
trations of lipoxygenase in lentil, few, if any, studies But they may be modified, for example pea starch, by
have been conducted on rancidity development in acetylation and phosphatization, which destroys heat
stored or processed lentil. However, fatty acid com- and acid stability of the starch granules and makes
position of lentil lipids has been reported (Salunkhe them functionally similar to corn starch derivatives
et al., 1985). Linoleic acid (18:2) is the major fatty (Corner and Fry, 1978).
acid, forming 37070 of the total fatty acids. Other fatty
acids present are: oleic (18:1),16%;, palmitic (16:0), Lentil starch has been fractionated for structural
13%; linolenic (18:3), 9%; and stearic (18:0), arachadic studies into amylose and amylopectin by selective
(20:0), and eichosenoic (20: 1), < 1.0% each; the ratio leaching of starch by dimethylsulfoxide thymol
of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids being 4: 1. Eskin (Naivikal and 0' Appolonia, 1979; Biliaderis et al.,
and Henderson (1977) reported lentil oil contained 1981). The molecular weight of the amylose triacetate
44% and 12% linoleic and linolenic fatty acids, respec- derivative was about 312 x 103 ; its limited viscosity
tively. These fatty acids are extremely susceptible to number (N), 188 mLlg, which was considerably lower
peroxidation and the production of off-flavors. Sessa than those of cereal amyloses (330-435); average degree
(1979) reviewed the biochemical aspects of lipid der- of polymerization (dp), 1400 glucose units; 13-
ived flavors in legumes. amylolysis, 89.4%. The incomplete l3-amylolysis sug-
gested the presence of a small number of branched (X-
(1- 6) linkages in the amylose fraction. The
(iii) Carbohydrates: Starch and Sugars
Starch is the major component of lentil carbohy- pullulanase-debranched lentil amylopectin, fractio-
drates and may vary from 35 to 53% (Reddy et al., nated on a Biogel-P-1O column, showed two major and
1984). The other carbohydrates in lentil are mono-, one minor chain length distributions. The longer
di-, tri- and oligosaccharides which may vary from 5 chains (II-chains) had a dp of 45 to 55 glucose units,
to 9%, cellulose and hemicellulose (10%) and lignin whereas the smaller chains (Ill-chains) had a dp of 14
(2 to 3%). Lentil starch is distributed in the paren- to 18 glucose units; the average chain length of
chymatous cells of the cotyledons. Until recently, rela- amylopectin was 20 glucose units. The bimodal dis-
tively few studies had been conducted on the isolation tribution of chain lengths suggests a characteristic
and functional properties of lentil starch. Several structural model for lentil amylopectin.
procedures have now been developed which use both Lentil starch granules have been described using
aqueous techniques as well as pin milling and air clas- light, polarized light, and scanning electron
sification (Schoch and Maywald, 1968; Shahen et al., microscopy (SEM) (Naivikal and 0' Appolonia, 1979;
1978; Naivikul and 0' Appolonia, 1979; Biliaderis et Bhatty and Slinkard, 1979). In the light microscope,
al., 1979; Hoover and Sosulski, 1986). Low protein lentil starch granules show dark bands which appear
lentil starch may be prepared by extracting lentil seed as cracks and probably result from air-drying. Under
at pH 7.5 to 9.5 (Anderson and Romo, 1976). Solu- polarized light, the starch granule shows a typical dark
bility of lentil protein increases slowly at this pH range. cross (birefringence) dividing it into four segments.
The pH of the extraction medium had no effect on The size and shape of the granule is clearly apparent
starch yield. The above studies reported the physio- from SEM photographs (Figure 1). The granules are
chemical properties of several sources of lentil starch, fully dispersed without any evidence of compound
which contained 34.8 to 45.5% amylose determined granulation, and are elipsoid or kidney shaped. The
by potentiometric titration (assuming pure amylose has hila are centric and deeply fissured without encircling

146/ Bhatty J. InSI. Can. Sci. Technol. Aliment. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1988
 Fig. I. Scanning electron microscopy of lentil starch isolated from
Laird lentil. Left, magnification 600; right, magnification
1000.

the granule. Granule size varies from 15 to 30 JLM in intestinal wall. The unhydrolyzed oligosaccharides thus
length and 10 to 25 JLM in width. pass into the large intestine where they are fermente~
O/igosaccharides and Derivatives. Lentil contains anaerobically to produce carbon dioxide, hydrogen
free mono-(glucose and galactose), di-(sucrose) and and traces of methane. Several methods have been
oligosaccharides of the raffinose family (also called developed to measure flatus in humans and experimen-
succrose a-D-galactosides), particularly raffinose,
stachyose and verbascose in variable concentrations
(Table 2). The two latter sugars are synthesized from RAFFINOSE
raffinose by the addition of a-D-linked galactose to
form a homologous series of increasing dP (Figure 2), I I
a-O-GoI- (1-61-a-O-Glu - (I-2)-,B-0-Fru
although oligosaccharides having dp greater than ver-
bascose have not been reported in lentil as in some +a-D-Gol /

other legumes. The concentrations of raffinose, STACHYOSE

stachyose and verbascose vary in different legumes.
In lentil, stachyose is the major sugar forming 35 to Ia-0-GoI-(I-6) - a-O-Gol-( 1-6) -a-D-Glu-( 1-2)- ,B-O-FruI
64% of the total free sugars; the percentage of verba-
scose varies from 17 to 23% and of raffinose from 6 +a-O-GOI/
to 12070 (Table 2). VERBASCOSE
Interest in free sugars, particularly raffinose and
stachyose, developed because of their possible role in
causing flatulence on ingestion of legumes by humans.
Ia-O-Gol- (1-6) - O<-O-Gol- (1-6)-a-0-Gol- (1-6)- a-O- Glu-( 1-2)-,8-0- FruI
The enzyme a, 1-6 galactosidase which cleaves the
Fig. 2. Structural relationships of the sucrose a-D-galactosides or
galactose linkages is not present in the human intesti- the raffinose family oligosaccharides. Gal, galactose; Glu,
nal mucosa and the unhydrolyzed sugars, unlike glucose; Fru, fructose. Reprinted from Naivikul and D'Ap-
mono- and disaccharides, are not absorbed by the polonia (1978) with permission of the publisher.

Can. Inst. Food Sei. Technol. J. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1988 Bhatty / 147
Table 2. Composition of free sugars and inositol of lentil. diet. Although no other study has been conducted, it
Percent of seed, dry basis seems flatulence may not be of concern in lentil utili-
Sugar (I) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) zation. Thus, there may not be any need to remove
Glucose 0.07 0.27 0.05 the oligosaccharides from lentil either by soaking the
Sucrose 1.81 1.30 3.36 2.00 1.64 1.8 - 2.5 seed or by other food processing procedures recom-
Raffinose 0.39 0.50 0.60 0.31 0.30 0.32 0.4 - 1.0 mended for other legumes (Calloway et al., 1971;
Stachyose 1.85 2.20 1.70 1.47 3.10 2.55 1.9 - 2.7 Reddy et al., 1984).
Verbascose 1.20 0.70 0.47 1.40 0.97 1.0 - 3.1
Unknown I 1.67 0.12 There remains the possibility that factor(s) other
Unknown 11 0.90 0.22 than oligosaccharides may cause or contribute to fla-
tus formation. Several studies have been reviewed by
Manninotriose 1.4 1.4 Reddy et al. (1984) in which removal of oligosaccha-
Pinitol 0.4 0.11
Myo-inositol 0.11 0.07
rides from beans did not completely prevent flatulence.
Galactopinitol 0.30 0.34 0.25 The role of fiber and its constituents in flatus forma-
Digalactopinitol 1.60 tion is not clear, though no relationship was found
Total 6.22 6.21 4.89 7.75 8.83 5.53 5.1 - 9.3 between cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents
Sources: of legumes and hydrogen production by rats (Flem-
I. Naivikul and D' Appolonia (1978) ing, 1981). Rockland et al. (1969) suggested a possi-
2. Schweizer et al. (1978)
3. Fleming (1981)
ble role of Clostridium perjringens, an organism nor-
4. Sosulski et al. (1982) mally present in the gastro-intestinal tract, in flatus
5. Quemener and Brillouet (1983) production. Thus, further research may be needed to
6. Bhatty and Christison (1984) elucidate the mechanism involved in flatus production
7. Reddy et al. (1984 on ingestion of legumes.
In addition to oligosaccharides of the raffinose
family, lentil contains cyclitols and cyclitol-derived
oligosaccharides such as pinitol (3-0-methyl-D-chiro-
inositol), and a disaccharide, galactopinitol (a-D-
tal animals (Calloway and Murphy, 1968; Fleming, galactopyranosyl-pinitol) at concentrations of 0.4%
1980). They are based on the premise that most of the and 0.3% of the dry matter, respectively (Schweizer
intestinally produced hydrogen diffuses into intestinal et al., 1978). Naivikul and D'Appolonia, (1978), Flem-
lumen and blood, is transported to lungs and eventu- ing (1981) and Sosulski et al. (1982) reported uniden-
ally expired in the air where it can be conveniently tified sugars and a trisaccharide (manninotriose) in a
measured. Using expired hydrogen from rats as a number of legumes, including lentil. Quemener and
measure of flatus formation, Fleming (1981) reported Brillouet (1983) identified the manninotriose peak of
positive correlations between hydrogen production and Sosulski et al. (1982) as well as the unidentified peak
stachyose (0.79), raffinose (0.43), stachyose + I reported by FIeming (1981) to be a new trisaccha-
raffinose (0.77), and acid hydrolyzable glucans and ride, a-D-digalactoside of pinitol, having the structure
pentosans (0.46 and 0.78 respectively), but significant of O-a-galactopyranosyl-(1- 6)-0-a-galactopyranosyl-
negative correlations between hydrogen production (1- 2)-I-D-4-0-methyl-chiro-inositoI. This trisaccha-
and starch or lignin contents of various legumes. Of ride, like the disaccharide galactopinitol, reported
the seven legumes studied, lentil contained the second earlier (Schweizer et al., 1978), was absent in both faba
lowest concentration of the three oligosaccharides bean and pea. An oligosaccharide which eluted after
(38070 of the free sugars; Table 3), and produced the stachyose and corresponded to unindentified peak II
lowest concentration of hydrogen which was not sig- of Fleming (1981) and Sosulski et al. (1982) was pos-
nificantly different from the control, non-flatulent sibly the higher homologue of pinitol digalactoside

Table 3. Oligosaccharide distribution in various legume species and the production of hydrogen gas by the laboratory rat following inges-
tion of the legumes.
Oligosaccharides l Hydrogen release
010 Maximum rate Accumulation
Species /l moles/h /l moles
Basal 4.55 42.1
Navy bean 75 30.67 147.4
Red kidney bean 60 23.94 157.9
Garbanzo bean 36 20.13 95.9
Mung bean 52 13.85 82.0
Wrinkled field pea 70 25.17 117.6
Smooth field pea 62 15.81 86.4
Green lentil 38 12.59 66.3
ISum of raffinose, stachyose and verbascose expressed as percent of total sugars.
Source:
Fleming (1981);

148/ Bhatty J. Inst. Can. Sci. Technal. Aliment. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1988
Table 4. Amino acid composition of lentil from widely differing sources.
g amino acid per lOO g protein, dry basis
Amino acid Rat WO (1973)
(I) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) requirement pattern
Tryptophan 0.9 0.7 0.9 0.9 0.7 1.2 1.0
Lysine 6.3 6.3 7.3 7.3 6.7 7.1 7.5 5.5
Histidine 2.1 2.6 2.8 2.3 2.1 3.4 2.5
Arginine, 6.9 7.9 8.8 7.2 7.5 7.7 5.0
Aspartic acid 9.9 10.2 11.3 11.4 13.2 9.3
Threonine 3.1 3.0 3.5 3.5 4.6 3.4 4.2 4.0
Serine 4.3 4.7 4.6 5.0 5.8 4.9
Glutamic acid 14.0 15.7 13.9 16.7 17.1 14.5
Proline 3.5 3.6 4.7 4.0 4.4 3.5
GLycine 3.5 4.0 3.8 4.0 4.4 4.8
Alanine 3.7 4.5 4.2 4.0 4.6 4.8
Cystine 1.3 1.7 0.8 0.9 0.6 1.0
Valine 4.0 5.4 4.2 4.7 4.1 4.9 5.0 5.0
Methionine 0.6 0.8 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.9 5.0 3.5
Isoleucine 3.5 4.3 3.6 4.4 3.9 5.0 4.6 4.0
Leucine 6.4 7.0 6.9 7.3 6.3 7.3 6.2 7.0
Tyrosine 2.3 2.9 3.0 2.6 3.0 3.2 2.0
Phenylalanine 4.1 5.1 4.7 4.8 4.5 4.7 6.7 6.0
Sources:
I. Bhatty et al. (1976); mean of six samples
2. Chatterjee and Abrol (1975); mean of four samples
3. Bhatty and Christison (1984); single sample
4. Sosulski (1983); single sample
5. Sayeed and Njaa (1985); single sample
6. Shekib et al. (1986); single sample

(Quemener and Brillouet, 1983). cells, since after seven days germination 50070 of the
The role of the a-galactose linkages of the di-, tri- globulin protein was still detectable,
and tetrasaccharides in flatus formation in lentil needs Unlike other grain legume proteins, lentil proteins
investigation. The galactopinitols were indigestible to have not been investigated in great detail for their com-
human intestinal enzymes in vitro (Wursch, 1977). position and subunit structure. The ubiquitous legume
However, Quemener and Brillouet (1983) suggested seed globulins, 2S, 7S (vicilin) and lIS (legumin) are
that the occurrence of the pinitol moiety in the struc- present in lentil in the proportions of 14, 51 and 35070,
ture of the di- and tri-saccharides may have an inhibi- respectively (Chakraborty et al., 1979). Margoshes
tory effect on a-galactosidase action, and thus these (1985) fractionated dehulled lentil proteins into Ca +2_
sugars may not be fermented anaerobically in the large soluble globulins (major fraction), Ca +2-insoluble
intestine. Thus, their contribution to flatus formation globulins and Ca2+-soluble albumins. Sodium
may not be significant. dodecyl suifate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of
the purified Ca2+-soluble globulins showed five bands
(iv) Proteins and Amino Acids corresponding to apparent molecular weights ranging
About 90070 of the protein in lentil is present in the from 19,500 to 100,000 kD.
cotyledons, 4070 in the seed coat and 5070 in the embryo Lentil proteins are largely albumins (water-soluble),
(Singh et al., 1968). The protein content of the and globulins (salt soluble), and little ethanol-soluble
embryonic axis is higher than that of the cotyledons protein (3070) is present (Bhatty et al., 1976). The glute-
(Bressani, 1975), but its contribution to total seed pro- lin protein fraction (10-20070) reported in legumes by
tein is negligible. In lentil, as in other legumes, pro- Norton et al. (1985), is largely denatured and poorly
teins are synthesized in the rough endoplasmic reticu- extracted albumin and globulin proteins. Lentil con-
lum and subsequently transferred to the protein bodies tains 20 to 30070 protein which is not solubilized by
for storage. The structure and composition of protein aqueous solvents and may be membrane-bound, struc-
bodies in various plant species have been described in tural proteins. Almost 100070 of lentil proteins may be
detail by Lott (1980). Alvarez and Guerra (1985) extracted from the meal with dilute (0.02070) sodium
studied the morphological and biochemical changes in hydroxide (pH 12). The isoelectric points of lentil pro-
protein bodies of lentil during germination. Three teins vary from pH 3 to 5.5, at which about 20070 of
kinds of protein bodies were identified. The degrada- the protein still remains in solution (Fan and Sosul-
tion of the globulin proteins by a caseolytic enzyme ski, 1974).
system in the protein bodies led to their fusion and Many factors affect solubilization and fractionation
eventual formation of a large central vacuole in the of legume storage proteins (see review by Derbyshire
cell. Such degradation was not uniform in all cotyledon et al., 1976). Extraction conditions used in one study

Can. Inst. Food Sci. Technol. J. Vo!. 21, No. 2, 1988 Bhatty / 149
 (Bhatty, 1986a) solubilized 76 to 790/0 of the lentil meal pattern.
proteins, which contained about 19% albumin and As yet, no gene or group of genes for high methio-
54% globulin protein fractions. Large variation may nine has been identified in wild or cultivated species
be expected in these values. Both the albumin and of lentil. The lack of such success may partly be due
globulin protein fractions of lentil are highly heter- to the low priority assigned in many lentil breeding
ogenous. On SDS-PAGE, the albumin protein frac- programs to the improvement of protein quality. Lentil
tion.resolved into 15 to 20 major and a similar num- is usually eaten in combination with cereals which have
ber of minor bands, ranging in molecular weights from mutually complementary amino acid patterns. The
about 14,000 to 94,000 kO. The globulin protein frac- suitability of lentil in complementing cereals is indi-
tion contained at least 20 bands having molecular cated by the level of lysine and threonine (deficient in
weights similar to the albumin protein fraction but cereals) which it contains 58% and 21 %, respectively,
none < 15,000 kO (Bhatty, 1986a). Other studies have more than the WHO (1973) requirement (Table 3).
also reported the heterogeneity of the albumin and Similarly, wheat, rice and corn contain substantially
globulin protein fractions of lentil (Miller, 1976; Sid- more methionine and cystine than lentil (Chatterjee
diqi, 1982, 1983, 1984). and Abrol, 1975).
Many of the albumin proteins are enzymatic or non- Non-Protein Amino Acids. Lentil contains a num-
storage proteins. Some studies (Youle and Huang, ber of free, protein and non-protein amino acids.
1978; Murray, 1979) have reported storage function Sulser and Stute (1974) reported the presence of two
for some of the albumin proteins fractions of legumes. basic amino acids, II-hydroxyarginine and /'-
Alvarez and Guerra (1985) reported the presence of
both albumins and globulins in the protein bodies of
lentil. Only the albumin fraction hydrolyzed casein,
suggesting an enzymatic function. However, non-
enzymatic function of some albumin components can-
not be ruled out.
An iron-containing protein, ferritin, has been iso-
lated and purified from pea and lentil by Crichton et
al. (1978). Ferritin and haemosiderin are the principal L. culinaris, cv. Laird
iron-storage proteins of mammals. In seeds, the iron
stored in ferritin is most likely used for the synthesis
of haem and non-haem iron enzymes associated with 16

photosynthesis.
Protein Amino Acids. The protein amino acid com-
position of many lentil cultivars grown in different 6

countries is similar except for minor differences in the

major amino acids glutamic and aspartic acids (Table
L. orientalis 14
4). This is so in spite of many variables commonly
associated with amino acid analysis in different labora-
tories (Finley, 1985). Furthermore, the protein amino
acid composition of the three wild species of lentil, L.
orientalis, L. ervoides and L. nigricans was similar to
that of the cultivated lentil species (Bhatty, 1986a).
Thus, a uniform amino acid composition among and
within the various lentil species suggests a relative L.ervoides
homogeneity of the genus Lens. Karyotypic studies
also suggests that Lens is a homogenous genus with 16
14
little evidence of genetic modification during its evo- 11 12 13

lution (Slinkard, 1985).

Methionine is the first and tryptophan the second 16

limiting amino acid in lentil compared with the WHO

(1973) requirement pattern (Table 4). The same two
amino acids are limiting as well for rat requirement.
The mean chemical score of lentil protein varies from
23 to 47 (Chatterjee and Abrol, 1975; Bhatty and 14 15

Slinkard, 1979; Shekib et al., 1986), with a protein

score and essential amino acid index of 33 and 86, Fig. 3. Elution profile of a 70010 ethanol extract of cultivated lentil
respectively (Bhatty and Slinkard, 1979). The range in (L. culinaris) and three wild lentil species (L. orientalis, L.
chemical score partly reflects the reference standard ervoides, L. nigricans) obtained from a Beckman 121 C
used for its calculation by various workers. The use amino acid analyzer. I. unknown; 2. aspartic acid;
3. unknown; 4. threonine; 5. serine; 6. glutamic acid;
of egg as reference standard lowers the nutritional 7. glycine; 8. alanine; 8a. unknown; 9. valine;
quality of lentil protein compared with the use of rat 10. phenylalanine; 11. histidine; 12. unknown; 13. lysine;
requirement standard or the WHO (1973) requirement 14. ammonia; 15. unknown; 16. arginine.

150/ Bhatty J. Inst. Can. Sci. Technol. Aliment. Vo!. 21, No. 2, 1988
 COOH tional significance of these amino acids in lentil is not
I
H-q-NH z known.
COOH 9Hz
I
:WFC-:Wl-' Quality in Lentils
H-9- NHz I..:
j
~HZ Although no statutory quality criteria, except grade
r~'-6-:c:-~'-:
_______, '.J
9NHHz specifications, have yet been established in Canada,
I
CH z C=NH there may be certain desirable criteria for lentils,
I I
NH Z NH z depending upon their end use. Furthermore, quality
requirements in lentil may vary with the demand of
r -hy'droxyornilhine lL-ery.lhro) the industry, the importing country and the consum-
ing public. Lentil researchers, producers and trade
COOH
I
should keep these criteria in mind. Quality in lentils
COOH
I
C-q-NH z is discussed below under three categories: (a) nutri-
H-q-NHz qH z tional, (b) seed and (c) cooking.
9Hz 9 Hz
(a) Nutritional
NH z NH z
The nutritional quality of lentil is related to the level
DiominoP..!Ql1ionic ocid Diominobutyric ocid and type of anti-nutritional factors, and the quality
and digestibility of its primary seed constituents, pro-
Fig. 4. The four non-protein amino acids identified in cultivated tein and starch.
and wild species of lentils Bhatty, I986 b). The dotted lines
indicate the L-erythro structure of v-hydroxyornithine and Anti-nutritional Factors. Unlike most other legumes,
v-hydroxyarginine reported by Sulser and Sager (1974). lentil is relatively free of anti-nutritional factors. The
trypsin inhibitor activity of raw lentil was about one-
tenth that of soybean (Bhatty, 1977). This was later
confirmed by Elkowicz and Sosulski (1982), who
reported the concentrations of trypsin inhibitors,
hydroxyornithine, in sodium citrate buffer (pH 2.2) hemagglutinins (Iectins), phytic acid and saponins
extracts of lentil. Structural studies showed that both (glycosides) in a number of legumes, including lentil.
amino acids had a single steric configuration with an The concentration of saponins was higher in lentil than
L-erythro structure (Sulser and Sager 1974). The con- in other legumes, except Phaseolus bean and cowpea.
centration of v-hydroxyarginine in lentil varied from However, saponins in general, and especially at con-
0.51070 to 0.89% of dry matter (57 to 68% of the total centrations present in lentil, are of little or no sig-
basic amino acids), and of v-hydroxyornithine from nificance as they are not toxic to humans (Birk, 1969).
0.04% to 0.08% of the dry matter (about 5% of the Hemagglutinins were isolated from lentil as early as
total basic amino acids) (Sulser and Sager, 1976). More 1908 (laffe, 1980). Lentil hemagglutinins were puri-
recently, Bhatty (1986a) identified five unknown fied by Howard and Sage (1969) on DEAE-cellulose
amino acids in cultivated and three wild species of len- chromatography and identified as glycoprotein con-
til. The elution profiles of the non-protein amino acids taining less than 1% carbohydrates. Toyoshima et al.
from the four species are shown in Figure 3. Two of (1970) obtained a homogenous preparation of hemag-
the unidentified amino acids (peaks 12 and 15) eluted glutinin with a molecular weight of 63,000 kD from
between histidine and arginine and were most likely lentil, and showed that it was a glycoprotein contain-
basic amino acids. The two other unknown amino ing 1.5% glucose and 0.5% glucosamine. The nota-
acids (peaks 1 and 3) eluted before and after aspartic ble feature of lentil hemagglutinin was the absence of
acid, and were acidic amino acids. cystine, and high proportions of aspartic acid and
There were differences in the unknown amino acids threonine. Lentil hemagglutinin appeared homologous
among the species. Lens ervoides, unlike the other three with pea and faba bean lectins (favin), suggesting a
species, did not contain peak 15, and had the highest similar, three dimensional structure (Hemperley et al.,
concentration of another unknown amino acid (peak 8a). 1979). These lectins bind to glucose and mannose.
eluted between alanine and valine, which was most likely The main interest in lentil hemagglutinins from the
a neutral amino acid. The identity and concentration nutritional point is their interference in nutrient diges-
of the unknown amino acids, particularly of tion and absorption. Severe reactions in humans are
v-hydroxyarginine and v-hydroxyornithine, could not acute gastroenteritis, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and
be confirmed by ion exchange chromatography due to abdominal pain (Aykroyd et al., 1982). However, the
lack of availability of authentic standards. However, growth promoting activity of raw and cooked lentil
gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that was quite similar in a rat growth test, suggesting that
both wild and cultivated lentil contained these two lentil hemagglutinin is non-toxic or its concentration
amino acids, and in addition, diaminobutyric acid and is too low to produce a deleterious effect (laffe, 1980).
diaminopropionic acid; the identity of the latter amino Bhatty and Christison (1984) showed there were no ill
acid was confirmed with a commercially available effects of uncooked lentils on rat performance as meas-
authentic sample (Bhatty, 1986b). Figure 4 shows the ured by food intake and weight gain, although the pro-
structures of the four non-protein amino acids identi- tein efficiency ratio, and protein digestibility of lentil
fied in wild and cultivated species of lentil. The nutri- were lower than those of pea and faba bean. However,

Can. Inst. Food Sci. Technol. J. Vo!. 21, No. 2, 1988 Bhatty / 151
Table 5. Supplementary effect of cooked lentils on the protein quality of wheat flour.
Wheat Wheat flour + Cooked lentils Lentils
Determination
flour mixed in the ratio of
Protein distribution (070) 100 75:25 50:50 25:75 100
Rat weight/group (g) 63.0 110 117 75 44
Protein efficiency ratio 1.0 2.5 2.7 1.9 1.3
True protein digestibility (070) 96 82 84 87 84
Biological value (070) 56 72 79 59 55
Net dietary protein calorie (070) 4.8 6.5 7.3 5.5 4.9
Source:
Khan et al. (1979)

an extremely high mortality rate (40070) was reported wheat, rice or corn. In such countries protein intake
in rats fed uncooked lentil (Abu-Shakra and Tannous, is the major concern. Therefore, protein quality of len-
1981), and this effect was ascribed to hemagglutinins. til is measured by its ability to supplement cereal pro-
The mortality rate was reduced to zero on autoclav- teins. Several studies have reported the beneficial
ing the lentils for 20 min. effects of addition of grain legumes to wheat, rice and
Lentil contains 0.41 to 0.53% polyphenols (flavan- corn (Bressani, 1975; Chatterjee and Abrol, 1975; Sar-
3-0Is) or tannins, calculated as catechin equivalent, war et al., 1975; Khan et al., 1979; Shekibetal., 1986).
although a zero tannin line (PI 345635) has been iden- The improvement of wheat protein specifically on the
tified (Vaillancourt et al., 1986). The tannins were con- addition of lentil is shown in Table 5. The best com-
centrated in the seed coat and absent in the dehulled bination was a mixture of wheat and lentil, each sup-
seed. This may partly be due to the procedure used plying 50% of the protein, corresponding to 50 g
for measuring tannins. The modified vanillin proce- wheat flour and 20 g of cooked lentil (40%). This
dure (Price et al., 1978) does not measure all of the proportion is higher than the recommended addition
polyphenols, unlike the Prussian blue procedure (Price of 85 g of grain legume or pulse to 400 g of cereal
and Butler, 1977). Using the latter procedure, Barroga (21 %) by the Indian Council of Medical Research
et al. (1985) detected 81 to 85% of the tannins in the (Chatterjee and Abrol, 1975). Nevertheless, at the
seed coat and 15 to 18% in the cotyledons of mung equal protein ratio (Table 5), the weight gain in
bean (Vigna radiata L. Wilczek.). The presence of experimental animals (rats) was 86 and 166% greater
phenolic constituents in lentil flour was reported by than the weight gain obtained with wheat or lentil pro-
Sosulski and Dabrowski (1984), who identified trans- tein alone, respectively. Similarly, there were substan-
ferulic and trans-p-coumaric acids (total concentration tial increases in protein efficiency ratio and the bio-
3 mg/IOO g flour) in the soluble ester fraction. The logical value of the protein mixture. Furthermore, the
hull fraction contained, in addition, a number of other net dietary protein calorie of the mixture (7.3 %) met
phenolic constituents both in the soluble ester and the recommended protein requirements for children
residue fractions. (4-9 years) and adults. Addition of lentil protein to
One of the major disadvantages of tannins in lentil wheat protein at a level of 75:25 decreased rat weight
is the general discoloration of the seed from the olive gain as well as lowering the protein quality of the mix-
green of freshly harvested seed to light yellow and ture, most likely due to methionine becoming limit-
finally deep brown on prolonged storage with con- ing. Improvements in the nutritional quality of cereals
comitant loss of germination capacity. Under con- on the addition of other legumes such as black bean
trolled environments of high humidity and warm tem- or mungbean at a level of 10 or 20% have been
peratures, browning is accelerated, possibly due to reported by Bressani (1975) and Chatterjee and Abrol
polymerization of low molecular weight phenolic (1975). Invariably, nutritionally poorer cereals such as
precursors (soluble tannins) to brown colored, high corn and sorghum show a greater improvement on the
molecular weight condensed tannins (Nozzolillo and addition of legumes than wheat or rice, due largely to
De Bezada, 1984). In addition to seed discoloration, the increase in total protein as well as in the limiting
tannins bind to proteins through hydrogen bonding amino acid (lysine, threonine, tryptophan and methio-
and hydrophobic reactions, thereby reducing their nine) contents of the mixtures. However, such mix-
nutritional quality (Hahn et al., 1984). Tannins may tures may still be deficient in some of the essential
also inhibit some of the digestive enzymes (Tamir and amino acids and respond to higher supplementation
Alumont, 1969). Removal of a major portion of len- of the cereal or the legume or to externally-added
til tannis may be achieved by dehulling, soaking the amino acids.
seed in boiling water, or roasting as has been reported Addition of methionine as low as 0.1 % to lentil
for mungbean (Barroga et al., 1985). greatly improved its nutritional quality, as measured
Protein quality and digestibility. In developing coun- by mouse weight gain (Fatma et al., 1981). Increasing
tries, lentil, like some other legumes, is eaten as dahl the supplement to 0.3% decreased the weight gain.
or gruel in combination with cereals, particularly However, lentil has been supplemented for rat feed-

152 / Bhatty J. Inst. Can. Sei. Teehnal. Aliment. Vo!. 21, No. 2, 1988
ing experiments with 0.5010 methionine, which irradiated, were inferior to soybean meal in promot-
improved its biological value from 46% to 54% ing weight gain and feed intake. Irradiation slightly
~Shinde and Chakrabarti, 1980), a relatively small improved the nutritive value of Red Chief lentil but
Increase. Methionine is a toxic amino acid, and its level had no effect on Chilean lentil (Daghir et al., 1983).
in supplementation of lentil for experimental diets The cost of lentil will be the major deterrent for its
must be firmly established. use in poultry rations.
There is no clear evidence that nutritive quality of Digestibility of Lentil Starch. Bell and Keith (1986)
lentil improves on germination. Kylen et al. (1975) reported that digestibility of lentil carbohydrates was
reported a slight increase (6%) in protein content on about 81 % with pigs as experimental animals, which
sprouting lentil in the dark for 3 days. The ascorbic was 9% higher than protein digestibility of lentil.
acid content of the sprouts was 11-fold higher than Fleming and Vose (1979) investigated the in vivo diges-
that of the lentil seed. A later study (Hsu et al., 1980) tibility of starches isolated from various legumes, using
reported a generally similar protein and amino acid rats as experimental animals. Lentil starch, like other
contents of lentil germinated for 4 days; in this case legume starches excluding the high-amylose wrinkled
the ascorbic acid increased 86-fold. pea starch, was nearly 100% digestible, showed no
Animal-Feeding. Because of its price, lentil is not nor- adverse effect on animal growth and was comparable
mally fed to livestock and poultry. However, off- to wheat starch. Cooking of lentil starch at 121 QC for
grade, frost-damaged or ascochyta blight-affected len- 15 min, followed by spray-drying, had no effect on
tils have been used in experimental feeding studies. its digestibility. Thus, in view of the extremely low fla-
Tarwid et al. (1985) reported that lentil infected with tus potential of lentil as reported by Fleming (1981),
ascochyta blight was not toxic to rats in a short term and a high digestibility of its starch, lentil carbohy-
study when fed at a level of 80% of the diet. Lentils drates are an excellent source of dietary energy.
that were damaged by frost and ascochyta blight were
fed at dietary levels of 0, 10, 20 and 30% to growing Glycemic Index. Several studies have recently reported
finishing pigs and there was no evidence of deleteri- lowering post-prandial (after meal) blood glucose levels
ous effects on growth rate or efficiency of feed utili- in normal volunteers and diabetic patients on inges-
zation (Bell and Keith, 1986). The protein digestibil- tion of legumes including lentil (Jenkins and cowor-
ity of lentil was 72% compared with 78% obtained for kers, 1980 a,b,c; 1982; Crapo, 1984, 1985). The
the no-lentil basal diet, suggesting that some factor glycemic index, a measure of blood glucose level
may have inhibited protein digestibility of lentil to produced by a food and an equivalent amount of pure
some extent. glucose, of various cereals and legumes is shown in
Digestibility of lentil protein has also been reported Table 6. Legumes gave a consistently lower glycemic
with rats as experimental animals. Bhatty and Christi- index than the cereals (wheat, rice and corn). The red
son (1984) reported apparent protein digestibility of lentil was the most effective of the legumes in reduc-
lentil (78%) lower than that of pea (89%) or faba bean ing blood glucose in diabetic patients, the glycemic
(84%). Another study (Bressani, 1975) reported true index being only 43% of the bread value. A similar
protein digestibility (TPD) of lentil (93%) similar to low glycemic index was found in healthy volunteers
those of yellow and green peas (91 to 94%). The TPD eating 50 g of carbohydrate portions of cooked lentil
of cooked lentil at 84% was slightly lower than that (Jenkins et al., 1980 a,b). The beneficial effect of len-
of wheat flour at 86% (Khan et ai, 1979), though cook- til and other legumes apparently was due to their slow
ing may lower protein digestibility (in vitro) of lentil release of carbohydrates ("Iente carbohydrate") on
(Sayeed and Njaa, 1985). Thus, there is no strong indi- digestion compared with cereal carbohydrates as
cation that digestibility of lentil protein is low. shown in Figure 5. The reasons for slow release of car-
Few studies have been conducted on the feeding of bohydrates in legumes are not clearly understood.
lentil to poultry. In one study conducted with day-old Recently, phytic acid has been reported to play a role
broiler chicks lentils, irradiated (18 Mrad) and non- in the slow release of legume carbohydrates (Thomp-
son et al., 1987). Phytic acid binds calcium, which in
Table 6. Glycemic index of various foods in diabetic patients. turn, may bind to protein such as the amylolytic
Food Number of patients Clycemic index l enzymes. Alternately, phytic acid may directly bind
Corn flakes 7 123 ± 5
with protein associated with starch thereby hindering
Wholemeal bread 6 102 ± 6 its hydrolysis by amylolytic enzymes. Thus, a change
White bread 6 102 ± 6 of diet incorporating more lentil would result in a
White rice 6 80 ± 5 smaller rise in post-prandial blood glucose, and even
Potatoe 6 77 ± 11 possibly a lower-fasting serum cholesterol, thereby
Black eye pea 6 71 ± 5
Kidney bean 7 66 + 7 helping in dietary control of diabetes as well as arterial
Chickpea 7 47;;; 9 disease (Jenkins et al., 1980a.
Red lentil 7 44 + 7
I Area under blood glucose response curve for each food expressed
(b) Seed
as percent of the area after taking the same amount of carbohy- The Canadian Grain Commission has established
drate as glucose (results are expressed as mean ± SEM). four main grades of Canadian lentil (for details see
Source: Canadian Grain Commission Official Grain Grading
Crapo (1984, 1985) Guide, 1986). These are described in Table 7 with

Can. Inst. Food Se!. Teehnol. J. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1988 Bhatty / 153
 4 grade name, e.g., No. 1 Canada Large.
n=6 ........ Bread Damaged: Damaged includes lentils that are peeled,
o--~ Lentils split and broken; sprouted; very immature; dis-
tinctly deteriorated or discolored by weather or dis-
ease; insect-damaged; heat-damaged or any other
-
::::::
'0
3 damage which would materially affect quality. Sam-
ples are degraded for damage according to toler-
ance in the grade definitions; over lOlJlo degraded
E
-E
(I)

~ 2
lentils are designated Sample Canada Account
Damaged.
Foreign Maferial: Stones, shale or similar material
(,) includes miI1eral matter, hard fertilizer pellets or
:::J
other materials of similar consistency not removed
C)
in cleaning. Other foreign material normally
"oo includes other domestic grains, weed seeds and
materials such as pods and stems.
ID 1 Color: Color for grading purposes is determined
c: after the removal of damaged lentils from the
(I)
C) cleaned sample. Good natural color refers to len-
c: tils that are sound, well-matured and have a good
ClS
~ natural color. Reasonably good color refers to len-
o 0 --f-------------~ tils that are moderately immature, lightly ground
tagged or discolored from storage or other natural
causes; fair color refers to lentils that are immature,
moderately ground tagged or otherwise moderately
discolored from natural causes.
-1 Seed size is an important quality criterion in len-
o 60 120 tils that varies considerably among cultivars. The
Canadian cultivar Laird has 13 to 14 seeds per gram
Time (minutes) while the cultivar Eston has 25 to 27 seeds per gram.
The Chilean lentil is intermediate in seed size
Fig. 5. Blood glucose concentratin in six healthy volunteers eating
50 g carbohydrates as whole meal bread or lentil. Reprinted
between Laird and Eston and has 16 to 18 seeds per
from Jenkins et al. (1980 a) with permission of the publisher. gram. Seed size largely determines cooking time in
n refers to the number of volunteers. lentil, as shown in Figure 6, where optimum cook-
ing time, indicated by vertical arrows, was about
primary grade determinants defined below: 30 min for Eston, 50 min for Chilean and 70 min
Class: Lentils are graded without reference to class for Laird, in proportion to their seed sizes given
Variety: Any variety licensed (registered) in Canada above. Erskine et al. (1985) reported a correlation
Type: On written request only, processed lentils may of + 0.92 between seed size and cooking time in 24
be designated large or determined by sizing using genotypes of lentil. However, cooking times are not
a No. 16 round-hole sieve. When 97lJlo or more of absolute and may vary from year to year for each
the lentils remain on top of the sieve the designa- cultivar (Table 8). Seed size is highly variable in len-
tion Large is added to and becomes part of the til (Williams and Nakkoul, 1985) and cultivars of

Table 7. Primary grade determinants in lentils.

Damaged Foreign material
Peeled
split Total
Grade and Other foreign
Name Colour Heated broken damage Total Stones Ergot Sclerotinia• material
No. 1 Good natural colour 0.2% 2.0% 1.0% 2.0% 0.1% 0.05% 0.10070 0.2%
Canada

No. 2 Reasonably good 0.5% 3.5% 2.0% 3.5% 0.2% 0.05% 0.10% 0.5%
Canada natural colour

Extra Fair colour 1.0% 5.0% 5.0% 5.0% 0.2% 0.05% 0.10% 1.0%
No. 3
Canada

No. 3 Fair colour 1.0% 10.0% 10.0% 10.0% 0.2% 0.05% 0.10% 1.0%
Canada
Source:
Canadian Grain Commission (1986).

154/ Bhatty J. Inst. Can. Sci. Technol. Aliment. Vo\. 21, No. 2, 1988
 80

.
.\\~_"'?I 60 Poor Cooker
"tI
8.0 C

.e.,"
Cl' 0
....... 7.0
Cl' 40
~
e0
...
..,
Cl> 6.0
u ~

& 20

.----.
5.0
\ Ch'''," J;
I/)

(;
Cl>
.>:
(f) 4.0 ~ ~~ 0
SO 40 30 SO 40 30

3.0
"---- • Eslon ._.
Time (seconds)

00 15 30 45 60 75 90 Fig. 7. Graphs of good- and poor-cooking samples of Eston len-

til, grown at two different locations, cooked as described
Cooking Time (min) in the text and shear force of the cooked samples measured
with the Kramer press. Shear force, kg/g: peak height in
Fig. 6. The relationship between shear force (cooking quality) deter- lb. x 0.453 -i- sample weight; Newtons: peak height in lb.
mined with Kramer shear press, and cooking time in one x 0.453 x 9.8 m/s 2 -i- sample weight.
sample each of Eston, Commercial Chilean and Laird len-
tils. The vertical arrows indicate approximate times at which
the lentils were considered cooked. Reprinted from Bhatty
et al. (1984) with permission of the publisher.
EI-Saied and EI-Shirbeeny, 1981: Sayeed and Njaa,
1985; Erskine et al., (1985). Such methods hardly lend
to standardization or indicate their precision and relia-
desirable seed size may be developed to meet local bility.
or export requirements. An objective instrumental method for measuring the
(e) Cooking
cooking quality of lentil was described by Bhatty et
al. (1983). The Kramer shear press (Model TP-l),
Lentil is almost exclusively used in human foods as
dahl, in culinary dishes on the Indian-sub continent available from Food Technology Corporation, Reston,
and in the Middle East, or incorporated into soups in VA (USA), measures the force required to shear a lentil
Europe and North America. Cooking quality, there- sample under defined conditions. This equipment has
fore, is the foremost quality criterion. Other quality been used to determine the cooking quality of Phaseo-
Ius bean and other legumes (Binder and Rockland,
criteria in lentil used for cooking may be seed size,
color, uniformity, absence of split or discolored seeds, 1964; Quast and de Silva, 1977). The procedure used
etc. In some cases, quality requirement may be dic- for cooking lentil is described in detail: Ten grams of
tated by the local industry, such as the following by lentil (dry weight) are added to 50 mL of distilled,
a lentil processor in the USA: grade; moisture, 6.5 to deionized water in a 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask covered
11.0010; defects and discolored seeds < 2%; seed size,
with a glass marble and the contents brought to a boil.
570 to 640 seeds/oz (20 to 25 seeds per gram). The The flask is then immersed in a boiling water bath
canned lentils are routinely checked for pH, viscosity, (98°q, and the lentils cooked for 15 to 60 min,
appearance, f1avor, taste (sensory evaluation) and bac- depending on the cultivar. After cooking, the water
terial count (R.S. Bhatty, personal communication). is drained off on a fine sieve, the lentils cooled to room
temperature and weighed, if necessary to obtain an
Determination of Cooking Quality. Few comprehan- estimate of water absorption. The texture of the
sive studies have been reported on the cooking qual- cooked lentils is measured with the Kramer shear press,
ity of lentil, which has been measured subjectively fitted with a TG-300 ring and a thin multi-blade shear
under conditions difficult, if not impossible, to compression cell. The ram speed is 0.7 cm/s and the
reproduce elsewhere. In most studies, lentils have been ram force is 45 kg. All sample are cooked and the tex-
boiled at different seed to water ratios until they are ture measured in quadruplicate. The shear force may
soft when pressed between the thumb and the fore- be expressed as kg/g or in Newtons (SI units), and used
finger or pressed with a spoon (Wassimi et al., 1978; as an index of cooking quality of lentil. Figure 7 shows

Table 8. Percentage of lentils cooked in 15 to 60 min for Laird, Chilean and Eston grown in 1980 to 1982.
Laird Chilean ESlOn
Cooking time (min) Cooking time (min) Cooking time (min)
Year 30 45 60 30 45 60 15 30 45
1980 o 23 55 0 29 58
1981 o 41 95 6 53 88 o 64 100
1982 65 100
Source:
Bhatty (1984)

Can. Inst. Food Sei. Teehnol. J. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1988 Bhatty / 155
 typical graphs of good- and poor-cooking lentils 6

obtained from the shear press. The peak height in each

case may be converted to shear force by formulae given 5 A

therein. Fifty-three samples of Laird and Commercial ,'"

Chilean lentils were cooked for 60 min in this manner ~4
with a standard error of determination of ± 0.17 '"
u
;;
(n = 212), and a coefficient of variability of 4.4010. "- 3

The shear force values were positively correlated j

<fl
(r = 0.76) with sensory evaluation of cooked [entils 2
using a semi-trained panel of 14 judges. Furthermore,
the shear force values were clearly correlated with
microstructure of the cooked lentils (Bhatty et al.,
1983), one disadvantage of use of Kramer shear press
Laird 1980 Laird 1981
is the large quantity (lOg for single determination) of
seed required for the cooking test. B
6
Figure 6 shows the relationship between shear force
and cooking time of one random sample each of Laird,
Commercial Chilean and Eston cu[tivars of lentil.
Clearly, as the cooking time increased, the shear force
decreased in a curvilinear manner. Plotting recipro-
cals of cooking times against shear force gave a straight
line relationship in all the three cultivars. However, o
precise cooking time for each cu[tivar is difficult to '"
fj, 2
determine as it varies with lentil samples grown under
different environments (growth location and season,
etc.). A shear force value of 4.0 kg/g has been used
as a demarcation point between cooked and under-
Commercial Chilean 1981
cooked lentil. Lentils with a value of < 4.0 kg are con- Commercial Chilean 1980

sidered cooked, and those with values> 4.0 are under- Fig. 8. The effect of growth location (indicated by bars) and sea-
cooked. This value may be reached, on the average, son (year) on the cooking quality of Commercial Chilean
in about 60 min in Laird and Commercial Chilean and and Laird lentils cooked for 60 min. The white bars indi-
cate a location with cooked lentils, and the black bars, under-
30 min in Eston lentils. cooked lentils. Reprinted from Bhatty et al. (1984) with per-
An instrument, similar to the Kramer shear press mission of the publisher.
for measuring texture of lentil, is the Ottawa Texture
Measuring System available from Canners Mahcinery
Inc., Simcoe, ON., Canada. The principle and work-
ing of this instrument have been described by Voisey
(1971). influence on cooking quality of lentils is not known,
nor is it known if the changes induced by such condi-
Hard-to-Cook Lentils. The hard-to-cook phenomenon tions are akin to those induced in Phaseo/us beans on
has been reported in lentils grown under different storage under adverse conditions. Nevertheless, the
environmental conditions. The effect of growth loca- mechanisms proposed for the hard-to-cook conditions
tion and season on the cooking quality of Laird and in bean seem most pertinent to the variability observed
Commercial Chilean lentils is illustrated in Figure 8, in the cooking quality of lentils, and are briefly
where the white bars represent cooked and the black reviewed below.
bars undercooked lentils grown on farmer's fields In Phaseo/us bean, hard shell and hard-to-cook
across the Prairie provinces (Bhatty et al., 1983, 1984). phenomenon are induced by storage under conditions
These studies resulted from concerns expressed by of high temperature and humidity, prevalent in tropi-
some lentil importing countries that the newly deve- cal countries. While both conditions lead to increased
loped cultivar, Laird, (Slinkard and Bhatty, 1979) was cooking time, hard shell beans fail to hydrate when
not equal to the standard cultivar, Commercial placed in distilled water, probably due to structural
Chilean. However, the results obtained suggested that and biochemical changes in the seed coat. The hard
intra-cu[tivar variability in cooking quality was small shell bean tends to float in water and its percentage
or negligible compared with variability due to environ- may be determined by counting seeds failing to absorb
mental differences. Scanning electron microscopy water under defined conditions. There is an inverse
(SEM) showed a complete loss of cellular structure in relationship between cooking time and the amount of
cooked lentils with no cell wall materials or the starch water imbibed. The less water imbided, the longer the
granules visible. In contrast, the undercooked lentils time required to cook the bean (Antunes and Sgarbieri,
showed relatively intact cellular structure; in many 1979). Explanations suggested for decreased imbibi-
cases the denatured cellular materials had moved out tion include: (I) extensive cross linking of protein and
leaving an "empty cell" (Figure 9). How environments tannins in the seed coat. Such cross linkages may be
(growth location and season) exert such a strong disrupted by soaking beans in solutions of cellulase and

156/ Bhatty J. Inst. Can. Sci. Technol. Aliment. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1988
 indicative of cellulose deposition (Hincks and Stanley,
1987).
In the hard-to-cook condition which originates in
the cotyledons the cell wall may undergo chemical
transformations which delay or prevent dissolution of
inter-cellular materials, thereby impeding cell separa-
tion. Several explanations have been suggested for this
condition by various workers (Antunes and Sgarbieri,
1979; Kon and Sanshuck, 1981; lones and boulter,
1983 a,b; Vindiola et al., 1986). lones and boulter
(1983 a,b) proposed a dual enzyme mechanism which
has been summarized by Vindiola et al. (1986). In this
mechanism the enzyme phytase hydrolyzes phytic acid
to release inorganic phosphorus and magnesium,
which migrates outside the cell to bind with pectic acid
produced by another enzyme, pectin methylesterase.
The insoluble Mg2~ pectate and possibly Ca2~ pec-
tate bind the cells together preventing their separation
on cooking. Such a mechanism, though plausible,
may, however, be too simplistic. Protein and starch
may also be involved, though no evidence seems to
have been found for starch to play any role in the hard-
to-cook condition (Vindiola et al., 1986; Hohlberg and
Stanley, 1987).
It is possible that environmental factors affect the
lentil seed coat in such a way that it becomes imperme-
able to water (hard shell). There was some evidence
of this occurring as samples of Laird, Chilean and
Eston lentils, having good- and poor-cooking quality,
differed significantly in hydration coefficient (the
amount of water taken up), although the rate of water
uptake in the samples was generally similar (Bhatty,
1984). Lack of cell separation in poorly or under-
cooked lentil, shown by SEM (Bhatty et al., 1983,
1984), also suggests that the hard-to-cook condition
is induced by environmental conditions. No studies
have been conducted on the mechanisms involved in
hard-to-cook lentils.

Fig. 9. Scanning electron micrographs of cooked (top) and under-

Acknowledgements
cooked (bottom) samples of Laird lentil cooked for identi- The author is indebted to the following in writing
cal times. Magnification 267. Shear force values: top sam- this review: the Saskatchewan Pulse Crop Develop-
ple, 3.1 kg/g; bottom sample, 5.3 kg/g. ment Board and the Agricultural Development Fund,
Regina, for financial assistance to conduct research on
lentils; Dr. A. Slinkard for review of the manuscript;
C. Francis and W. Tom for the literature search, and
l. Diduck for drawing the figures.
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160/ Bhatty J. Ins/. Can. Sei. Teehnol. Aliment. Vol. 21. No. 2. 1988