Abstract
Eleven germplasms of faba bean seeds from four agroclimatic regions of Bihar, India, have been investigated to estimate their nutritional (soluble protein, free amino acids, starch, reducing and non reducing sugar, total soluble sugar) and antinutritional (total extractable phenol and condensed tannin/proanthocyanidin) parameters. These parameters were found in varying concentration in all genotypes studied. The highest concentration of total extractable phenol and proanthocyanidin (condensed tannin) (2.56 and 1.59 % leucocyanidin equivalents respectively on dry matter basis) were found in Samastipur while the lowest from Patna (0.95 and 0.426 % leucocyanidin equivalent on dry matter basis). The different nutritional parameters were also found to be in variable concentration among different germplasms viz. total soluble protein ≈ 20-32 %, free amino acids ≈ 188-348 mg/100 g, starch ≈ 27-33 %, reducing sugars ≈ 85-188 mg/100 g, non reducing sugars ≈ 0.7-1.7 % and total soluble sugars ≈ 0.8-1.9 %.