While the fava bean plant is abundant in protein, well-suited to growing in colder areas, and capable of almost eliminating the need for fertilizer, it has one fatal flaw: eating the bean can have serious health implications for an estimated 400 million people worldwide. Eating the bean damages red blood cells in those who are lacking in a certain enzyme.
Digesting fava beans can cause favism, a blood condition that affects 4% of the world's population who carry a particular gene.
An international team of researchers, including plant scientists from the University of Saskatchewan, has uncovered a key step in the production of the compounds vicine and convicine by the plant commonly known as the faba bean or broad bean. Their research was published in the journal Nature Plants.
The international team also involving researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University in Denmark, the University of Helsinki and Natural Resources Institute Finland in Finland, the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, and Georg-August-University in Germany have identified the key biological pathway that leads to vicine and convicine.
Low vicine and convicine fava beans might be a new, high-value crop for farmers if scientists can figure out and identify how the plant makes these compounds. An added benefit with Fava beans, in addition to being high in protein, they are also excellent at adding nitrogen to the soil.