Flatulence-causing galactooligosaccharides of Phaseolus coccineus L. and Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Abstract

Phaseolus coccineus beans were assayed for the presence of raffinose and stachyose in whole seeds and in the morphological parts of the seed: cotyledon, hypocotyl and hull. The quantitative composition of the galactooligosaccharides of Ph. coccineus was compared with Ph. vulgaris seeds. The major galactooligosaccharide of Ph. coccineus seeds is stachyose. Another galactooligosaccharide, verbascose, was present in Ph. coccineus seeds in very low amounts (0.04%). The highest concentrations of raffinose and stachyose were found in the hypocotyl, 1.11% and 7.48%, respectively. The hull contained the lowest quantities of stachyose and only traces of raffinose.

Keywords

• Phaseolus coccineus
• Phaseolus vulgaris
• seed
• cotyledon
• hypocotyl
• hull
• galactooligosaccharide content