Anti-nutritional and toxic factors in food legumes: a review.

A comprehensive review on the presence of certain important anti-nutritional and toxic factors in food legumes has been conducted. These substances include proteolytic inhibitors, phytohemagglutinins, lathyrogens, cyanogenetic compounds, compounds causing favism, factors affecting digestibility and saponins. These factors are shown to be widely present in leguminous foods which are important constituents of the diet of a large section of the world's population, and particularly, of people in the developing countries.