Evaluation of Physical and Cooking Characteristics of Five Improved Lima Beans

Phaseolus lunatus commonly known as lima bean is one of the important leguminous crops in the genus phaseolus noted for its nutritional and medicinal properties. However, the current improved varieties released by Crop Research Institute (CRI) have no documental records on their physical and cooking properties. This informed the study to evaluate the physical and cooking characteristics of 5 improved lima beans. The lima beans were obtained from Crop Research Institute, Fumesua-Ghana and analyses on physical and cooking properties were carried out. Seed length ranged from 19.12 to 25.50 mm, breadth from 12.41 to 15.41 mm with significant differences among the accessions. However, thickness which varied from 5.10 to 6.58 mm showed no statistical significant difference. The thousand (1000) seed weight significantly varied from 886.00 to 1311.65 g. All the five lima bean accessions belonged to the Andean gene pool or Meso-American large seeded type. Length/breadth & water uptake ratio, and bulk density were within the range of 1.49 to 1.76, 1.15 to 1.81 g, and 0.59 to 0.62 g/ml, respectively. The cooking time of all the accessions ranged from 81.00mins to 91.50mins with no significant differences. Cooked Length-Breadth and water uptake ratios had minimum and maximum values of 1.39 to 1.78 and 1.15 to 1.31, respectively. Seed hydration capacity and index had values between 18.98-23.05 g/seed & 7.14-10.45; swelling capacity ranged between 17.98-20.38ml/seed and swelling index recorded values between 3.88-5.10. The physical and cooking properties of legumes are important for the design of equipment necessary for food processing, packaging, post-harvest handling and also for determination of cooking quality. The underutilized legumes have physical and cooking characteristic which make them potentially ideal for commercial cultivation, local food uses and for industrial food processing