Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #226827

Title: FOLATE CONTENT IN SELECT DRY BEAN GENOTYPES

Author
item GOYER, AYMERIC - OREGON ST UNIV
item Navarre, Duroy - Roy
item Miklas, Phillip - Phil

Submitted to: Bean Improvement Cooperative Annual Report
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/22/2008
Publication Date: 4/27/2008
Citation: Goyer, A., Navarre, D.A., Miklas, P.N. 2008. Folate content in select dry bean genotypes. Bean Improvement Cooperative Annual Report. 51:132-133.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Dry edible beans are a good natural source of folate (½-cup serving of cooked beans provide 35% daily value of folate). Recognized healthful benefits of folate in the human diet include reduced birth defects, decreased plasma homocysteine level which is a risk factor in cardiovascular disease, reduced risk of several types of cancer, and decreased age-related memory loss as claimed in a recent report. Variable folate content reported among dry bean market classes (cranberry and dark red kidney, respectively, were reported to contain 183 and 65 mcg per ½-cup serving indicates a potential for genetic manipulation of folate content using traditional plant breeding methods. Release of high folate bean cultivars would provide a value-added “nutritionally improved” food to consumers. Our objective was to determine folate content of dry bean genotypes harvested from the same field trial. Folate content ranged from 2016 to 2569 ng g-1 DW (dry weight), with the largest difference representing a 27% increase between genotypes within the pinto bean market class. The range in folate content observed among genotypes in this study is quite small compared to the 182% difference reported between dark red kidney and cranberry bean Differences in analytical methods, sample source, and sample preparation, likely contributed to the disparity between our results and those reported elsewhere. Our samples derive from a common field trial and were stored similarly which contributed to more uniform test material, whereas sample source and treatment in the previous study are unknown. The wide range in folate content observed in the previous studies could arise from many factors including differences for environment and location of production, year of harvest, storage, and commercial processing, among the bean samples tested.Perhaps a larger survey of bean genotypes will reveal a wider difference in folate content amiable to manipulation by breeders than that observed among the 12 genotypes examined in this study.