Legume Research

  • Chief EditorJ. S. Sandhu

  • Print ISSN 0250-5371

  • Online ISSN 0976-0571

  • NAAS Rating 6.80

  • SJR 0.391

  • Impact Factor 0.8 (2023)

Frequency :
Monthly (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December)
Indexing Services :
BIOSIS Preview, ISI Citation Index, Biological Abstracts, Elsevier (Scopus and Embase), AGRICOLA, Google Scholar, CrossRef, CAB Abstracting Journals, Chemical Abstracts, Indian Science Abstracts, EBSCO Indexing Services, Index Copernicus
Legume Research, volume 39 issue 4 (august 2016) : 528-532

Natural variability and effect of processing techniques on raffinose family oligosaccharides in pigeonpea cultivars

Ramadoss Bharathi Raja*, Somanath Agasimani1, Anusheela Varadharajan, Sundaram Ganesh Ram
1<p>Department of Plant Genetic Resources, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India.</p>
Cite article:- Raja* Bharathi Ramadoss, Agasimani1 Somanath, Varadharajan Anusheela, Ram Ganesh Sundaram (2016). Natural variability and effect of processing techniques on raffinose family oligosaccharides in pigeonpea cultivars . Legume Research. 39(4): 528-532. doi: 10.18805/lr.v0iOF.9279.

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was performed to determine the raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) and sucrose content in 32 pigeonpea cultivars. The results showed that the RFOs in the pigeonpea seed extracts comprised of raffinose, stachyose and verbascose. The  contents  of  raffinose,  stachyose  and  verbascose  were  within  the  range  of  1.15  to 2.55%, 2.25 to 4.05% and 2.05 to 4.05% with mean values of 1.63%, 2.97% and 2.80%, respectively. There was large level of variation of individual RFOs. Furthermore, to study the effect of post-harvest processing on the RFO contents, sprouting and cooking experiments were conducted with the seeds of the variety VBN 3 which possessed high RFO levels. Sprouting significantly reduced the RFO levels within 24 hours while cooking even up to 30 min in boiling water did not result in a considerable reduction. Among the local processing techniques, sprouting had significant effect on reducing RFOs content in pigeonpea. 


  1. Abdel-Gawad, A. S. (1993). Effect of domestic processing on oligosaccharide content of some dry legume seeds. Food Chemistry, 46: 25–31.

  2. Arora, S. K. (1983). Legume Carbohydrate. In Chemistry and Biochemistry of Legumes S. K. Arora (Eds.), London: Edward Arnold, (pp. 1-47).

  3. Calloway, D. H., and Murphy, E. L. (1968). The use of expired air to measure intestinal gas formation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 150: 82-95.

  4. Hill-Cottingham, D. G. (1983). Chemical Constituents and Biochemistry. The faba bean. (pp. 159-180). P. D. Hebblethwaite (Eds.), Butterworths, London.

  5. Iyer, V., Salunkhe, D. K., Sathe, S. K., and Rockland, L. B. (1980). Quick cooking beans: Phytates, oligosaccharides and antienzymes. Quality Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 30: 45-52.

  6. Jood, S., Mehta, U., Singh, R., and Bhat, C. M. (1985). Effect of processing on flatus-producing factors in legumes. J. of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 33: 268-71.

  7. Kawamura S (1961), Changes of sugars of soya bean on germination. Ann Res kagawa University Takamatiu Kagawaken Japan.

  8. Kennedy, I. R., Mwandemele, O. D., and McWhirter, K. S. (1985). Estimation of sucrose, raffinose and stachyose in soybean seeds. Food Chemistry, 17: 85-93.

  9. Kumar V, Rani, A., Goyal, L., Dixit, A. K., Manjaya, J. G., Dev, J. and Swamy, M (2010) Sucrose and raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) in soybean seeds as influenced by genotype and growing location. J. Agricultural Food Chemistry, 58: 5081-5085. 

  10. Kuo, T. M., Van Middlesworth, F. K., and Wolf, W. J. (1988). Content of raffinose oligosaccharides and sucrose in various plant seeds. J. of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 36: 32–36.

  11. Liener, I. E. (1980). Flatus-producing factors. In Toxic Constituents of Plant Foodstuffs I. E. Liener (Eds.), London: Academic Press (pp. 455-457)..

  12. Macrae, R., and Zand-Moghaddam, A. (1978). The determination of the component oligosaccharides of lupin seeds by high pressure liquid chromatography. J. of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 29: 1083-1086.

  13. Marti´nez-Villaluenga, C., Fri´as, J., and Vidal-Valverde, C. (2005). Raffinose family oligosaccharides and sucrose contents in 13 Spanish lupin cultivars. Food Chemistry, 91: 645–649

  14. Mulimani VH, and Devindra S, (1998). Effect of soaking, cooking and crude alpha-galactosidase treatment on the oligosaccharide content of the red gram flour. Food chemistry, 61: 475-479.

  15. Mulimani VH, Thippeswamy S and Ramalingam, (1997). Effect of soaking, cooking and crude alpha-galactosidase treatment of the oligosaccharide content of soybean flour. Food chemistry, 59: 279-282.

  16. Nene, Y.L., and Sheila, V. K. (1990). Pigeonpea: Geography and Importance. In The Pigeonpea Y.L. Nene et al (Eds.), Cambridge, UK: C_A_B International, Univ. Press, (pp. 1-14), pp 1-4.

  17. Oboh, H. A., Muzquiz, M., Burbano, C., Cuadrado, C., Pedrosa, M. M., Ayet, G., Osagie, A.U. (2000). Effect of soaking, cooking and germination on the oligosaccharide content of selected Nigerian legume seeds. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 55: 97–110.

  18. Onigbinde, A. O., and Akinyele, I. O. (1983). Oligosaccharide content of 20 varieties of cowpeas in Nigeria. J. of Food Science, 48: 1250–1254.

  19. Rao, P. U., & Belavady, B. (1978). Oligosaccharide in pulses: Varietal differences and effects of cooking and germination. J. of Agricultural Chemistry, 26, 316–319.

  20. Reynolds, J. H. (1974). Immobilized ct-galactosidase continuous flow reactor. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 16: 135-47.

  21. Ruperez, P. (1998). Oligosaccharides in raw and processed legumes. Z Lebensm Unters Forsch A, 206: 130–133.

  22. Sanchez, R., and Tucker, C. (1966). The development of the flatulence principle in the maturing bean (pp. 53-56). Michigan, USA: 8th Dry Bean Research Conference.

  23. Somiari, I. R., and Balogh, E. (1993). Effect of soaking, cooking and crude galactosidase treatment on the oligosaccharide content of cowpea flours. J. of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 61: 339–343.

  24. Sosulski, F. W., Elkowicz, L., and Reichert, R. D. (1982). Oligosaccharides in eleven legumes and their air-classified protein and starch fractions. J. of Food Science, 47: 498-502.

  25. Swennen, K., Courtin, C. M. and Delcour, J. A. (2006). Non-digestible oligosaccharides with prebiotic properties. Critical Review on Food Science Nutrition, 46: 459-471.

  26. Trugo, L. C., Almeida, D. C. F., and Gross, R. (1988). Oligosaccharide contents in the seeds of cultivated lupins. J. of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 45: 21–24.

  27. Ugwu, F.M. and Oranye. N.A. (2006). Effect of some processing methods on the toxic components of African bread fruit (Treculla Africana). African J. Biotechnology, 5: 2329-2333.

  28. Xiaoli, X., Liyi, Y., Shuang, H., Wei, L., Yi, S., Hao, M., et al. (2008). Determination of oligosaccharide contents in 19 cultivars of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) seeds by high performance liquid chromatography. Food Chemistry, 111: 215–219.

Editorial Board

View all (0)