Pulse (legume)
Pulses
The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) defines pulses as annual leguminous crops yielding from one to 12 grains or seeds of variable size, shape and coulour within a pod.
Pulses are used for food and feed.
The term pulses is reserved for crops harvested solely for the dry grain and therefore excludes green beans, green peas which are vegetable crops. Also excluded are crops which are mainly grown for oil extraction like soybeans and peanuts. And crops which are used exclusively for sowing (clovers, alfalfa).
Pulses are important food crops due to their high protein and essential amino acid content. Like many leguminous crops, pulses play an important part in crop production due to their ability to fix nitrogen.
FAO recognizes 11 primary pulses.
- Dry beans (Phaseolus spp)
- Kidney bean, haricot bean, pinto bean, navy bean (Phaseolus vulgaris
- Lima bean, butter bean (Ph. Lunatus)
- Adzuki bean (Ph. Angularis syn.Vigna angularis)
- Mung bean, golden gram, green gram (Ph. Aureus<:I> syn.Vigna radiata
- Black gram, Urd (Ph. Mungo)
- Scarlet runner bean (Ph coccineus
- Rice bean (Ph. calacaratus
- Moth bean (Ph. aconitifolius syn. Vigna aconitifolius)
- Tepary bean (Ph. acutifolius
- Dry broad beans (Vicia spp)
- [[Horse bean]) (Vicia faba var. equina)
- [(Broad bean]](Vicia fava var major)
- Field bean (Vicia faba var minor)
- Dry peas (Pisum spp
- Garden pea (Pisum sativum)
- Protein pea (Pisum arvense)
- Chick pea, Garbonzos, Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum)
- Dry cow peas, blackeye pea, blackeye bean (Vigna sinensis)
- pigeon pea, cajan pea, congo bean (Cajanus cajan)
- Lentils (Lens esculenta)
- Bambara beans, bambara groundnut, earth pea (Voandzeia subterranea)
- Vetch, common vetch (Vicia sativa)
- Lupins (Lupinus spp)
- Minor pulses (including inter alia)
- Lablab, hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab)
- Jack bean, sword bean (Carnavalia spp)
- Winged bean (Psophocarpus teragonolobus)
- Velvet bean (Stizolobium spp)
- Yam bean (Pachyrrizus erosus)