Effect of soaking, cooking and autoclaving on phytic acid and oligosaccharide contents of the tribal pulse, Mucuna monosperma DC. ex. Wight

The effects of soaking, cooking and autoclaving on the levels of phytic acid and oligosaccharides, raffinose, stachyose and verbascose, present in two germplasm seed materials of Mucuna monosperma collected from Kerala and Tamil Nadu states, were investigated. The loss of phytic acid was found to be higher in distilled water soaking compared to salt water soaking in Kerala germplasm. There was no significant reduction in content of raffinose during soaking in distilled water in Tamil Nadu germplasm. Cooking for 3 h effected significant reduction of phytic acid, raffinose, stachyose and verbascose in both the germplasms studied. The percentage loss of oligosaccharides with autoclaving was higher than with cooking. These results revealed that autoclaving was more effective in eliminating the contents of phytic acid and oligosaccharides, in both the germplasms of the Indian tribal pulse, Mucuna monosperma, presently studied.