Faba bean is a highly nutritious legume with a high nutritional and economic potential.
Currently, it is mostly used as animal feed, in human diets, bakery products, as green
manure, for erosion control, etc. It contains a high proportion of proteins, fibers,
vitamins, and minerals. In addition to nutrients, bob also contains antinutrients,
particularly vicine and convicine, which are responsible for causing the medical
condition known as favism. Favism is a hemolytic anemia that occurs in people who
have a deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Favism is not an
allergy, so products containing faba bean do not need to be specially labeled. The
condition is most common in men, in regions such as Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean,
and the Middle East. To prevent the possibility of illness, it is recommended to soak,
ferment, cook, grind, enzymatically treat, peel, or consume bob without vicine and
convicine content before use. The gene VC1 is responsible for the proportion of vicine
and convicine in bob and carries the information for the enzyme GTP cyclohydrolase II.
GTP cyclohydrolase II is an enzyme that participates in the riboflavin pathway. With
the discovery of the metabolic pathway, there have been opportunities to develop faba
bean varieties without vicine and convicine content. Such a faba bean would be suitable
for the diet of all people and would significantly contribute to a plant-based diet.
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