Food legume production in China

Food legumes comprise all legumes grown for human food in China as either dry grains or vegetables,except for soybean and groundnut.China has a vast territory with complex ecological conditions.Rotation,intercropping,and mixed cropping involving pulses are normal cropping systems in China.Whether indigenous or introduced crops,pulses have played an important role in Chinese cropping systems and made an important contribution to food resources for humans since ancient times.The six major food legume species(pea,faba bean,common bean,mung bean,adzuki bean,and cowpea) are the most well-known pulses in China,as well as those with more local distributions;runner bean,lima bean,chickpea,lentil,grass pea,lupine,rice bean,black gram,hyacinth bean,pigeon pea,velvet bean,winged bean,guar bean,sword bean,and jack bean.China has remained the world's leading producer of peas,faba beans,mung beans,and adzuki beans in recent decades,as documented by FAO statistics and China Agriculture Statistical Reports.The demand for food legumes as a healthy food will markedly increase with the improvement of living standards in China.Since China officially joined the World Trade Organization(WTO) in2001,imports of pea from Canada and Australia have rapidly increased,resulting in reduced prices for dry pea and other food legumes.With reduced profits for food legume crops,their sowing area and total production has decreased within China.At the same time,the rising consumer demand for vegetable food legumes as a healthy food has led to attractive market prices and sharp production increases in China.Vegetable food legumes have reduced growing duration and enable flexibility in cropping systems.In the future,production of dry food legumes will range from stable to slowly decreasing,while production of vegetable food legumes will continue to increase.

Editorial: Food Legume Diversity and Legume Research Policies

This special issue is focused on grain legumes,which belong to the Fabaceae family.Legumes are the second largest family of plants in the world after the grasses and are key components of manmade and natural ecosystems[1–3].They provide the environmental service of nitrogen fixation,so essential to soil construction and fertility maintenance,and are thus essential to agricultural systems[4,5].Different species of legumes range from huge trees to shrubs

Effect of a 12-Week Dietary Intervention with Folic Acid or Folate-Enhanced Foods on Folate Status in Healthy Egyptian Women

The Egyptian government introduced wheat-flour fortification with iron and folic acid to reduce the incidence of neural tube defects, but suspended it for technical reasons. We previously developed novel legume foods with enhanced folate content. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of 12-week intervention with folate-enhanced foods versus folic acid supplement in improving folate status in Egyptian women. A randomized, parallel intervention trial with two active groups (n = 19, n = 18) and one blinded control group (n = 20) was executed over 12 weeks. Volunteers received either germinated legume foods and orange juice (≈250 μg/d folate) or folic acid supplement (500 μg/d) or apple juice (0 μg/d folate). Folate status was assessed by erythrocyte and plasma folate and total homocysteine (tHcy) at day 0, and after 8 and 12 weeks of intervention. After 12 weeks, mean plasma folate increased by 14 (P < 0.0001) and 12 (P < 0.0001) nmoL in the folic acid and food group, respectively. Erythrocyte folate concentration increased in the folic acid group from 614 to 912 (P < 0.0001) and in the food group from 631 to 914 nmoL (P < 0.0001). After 12 weeks, 90% of subjects in the folic acid group and 70% in the food group had erythrocyte folate concentrations exceeding 906 nmol/L. tHcy concentration was decreased by 20% (P = 0.007) and 18% (P = 0.006) in the folic acid and food group, respectively, but remained unchanged in the control group during intervention. Folate-enhanced foods effectively improve folate status in women of reproductive age. These foods could be used as a complement to folic acid fortification.