Cultivar, Planting Date, and Row Spacing Effects on Mungbean Seed Composition

Abstract

Mungbean [(<i>Vigna radiata</i> (L.) R. Wilczek, Fabaceae] is becoming an important food crop in the United States of America. This crop has previously been produced in the US states of Texas and Oklahoma but this production is currently not significant. Recent efforts have established that mungbean can be easily produced in Virginia, located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America. However, there is a complete lack of information related to nutritional quality of mungbean produced in this region. We grew mungbean during 2012 and 2013 using two cultivars (Berken and TexSprout), two planting dates (early and late July), and two row spacings (0.375 and 0.75 m) to characterize composition of mungbean seed produced in Virginia. Mungbean seeds produced in this study averaged 1.59, 24.3, and 4.91% oil, protein, and sugars, respectively. These mungbean seeds also contained 38.8, 61.2, 5.79, and 55.1% in saturated, unsaturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, respectively. Predominant fatty acids in the mungbean seed were C16:0 (26.1%), C18:0 (6.11%), C18:2 (36.8%), and C18:3 (18.3%). Iron and zinc contents of the mungbean seed were 8.42 and 3.88 mg·100 g^-1. Concentrations of fructose, glucose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose sugars in mungbean seed were 0.45, 0.30, 0.70, 0.24, 0.84, and 2.37%, respectively. Effects of cultivars, planting dates, and row spacings on mungbean seed composition were, generally, not significant. Overall, mungbean seed compared well with nutritional quality of kidney bean, pinto bean, navy bean, and tepary bean.