Chickpea (<i>Cicer arietium</i> L) is an important legume crop in the world. Legumes are the main source of dietary saponins, these bioactive compounds are a group of secondary metabolites with a structure constituting of steroid or triterpenoid aglycones and sugar moieties. For years, saponins had been considered anti-nutritional factors; nowadays, they have been attributed with multiple health promoting effects such as diminishing metabolic syndrome symptoms. In this study, the saponins concentration in 80% methanolic extracts of ten pigmented chickpeas cultivars (cv) were analyzed. The chickpeas studied had green (1 cv), black (3 cv), red (3 cv), brown (1 cv) and cream (2 cv) colored seed coat. The saponins were identified by their corresponding mass spectra obtained by HPLC-IT-MS and quantified by HPLC-ELSD using soyasaponin I as external standard. Three predominant saponins were found. Soyasaponin βg (m/z 1068) was identified as the most abundant saponin representing more than 90% of total content except by green cultivar (≈ 70%), and the content ranged from 866-164 μg/g in chickpea samples. These results agree with previous reports of saponins content in chickpea seeds. Moreover, Soyasaponin Bb (m/z 942) was found in all samples in less than 10% except for green cultivar (≈30%). Soyasaponin αg (m/z 1084) had been previously identified in chickpea but not quantified. However, the chickpeas of this study presented low (≈4%) amounts of this saponin. For the black and cream cultivars, there was an inverse association to seed size and saponins content. In this study, pigmented chickpeas showed soyasaponin Bb or αg in their profile, in contrast with other studies that not identified or quantified their presence in raw chickpea seeds. Therefore these chickpeas cultivars are a potential source of saponins for promoting health effects.

Saponins quantification in pigmented chickpeas cultivars

250th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.