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 Basic Botanical Data and Identification of Lentil:

 Family: Fabaceae (Pea family,Leguminosae)
 Subfamily: Faboideae
 Genus: Lens
 Species: Lens culinaris Medic.; also Lens esculenta Moench
 Scientific Names:Lens culinaris
 Botanical: Lens culinaris Medik. subsp. culinaris
 Common Names:Lentil (English), Adas (Arabic), Mercimek (Turkey), Messer (Ethiopia), Masser (India)
 Other Latin names: Cicer lens Willd., Ervum lens L., Lens esculenta Moench.
 SYNONYM(S) : Lens culinaris Medik., Lens esculenta Moench. , Lentilla lens (L.) W.Wight ex D.Fairchild, Cicer lens (L.) Willd., Ervum lens L., Vicia lens (L.) Cosson & Germ., Lens lens Huth.
 Common Names:Black lentil, Brown lentil, Green lentil, Green mung bean, Large-seeded lentil, Lentil, Red mung bean, Small-seeded lentil, Wild lentil, Yellow lentil, Adas (Arabic), Mercimek (Turkey), Messer (Ethiopia), Masser (India).
 Other names:Ervum lens L.;Lens esculenta Moench;Lens lens Huth;Vicia lens (L.)Cosson & Germ.;Common Lentil;Lenteja;Lentil;Lentille
 Origin of the name:The botanical name derives from their resemblance in shape to the lens of the eye. The derivation from the Latin lens is common to European languages.

   

 Arabic : 'Adas.
 Assamese : Massurmoha.
 Bengali : Buromussur, Masur, Masuri, Masuridal.
 Burmese : Pe ni.
 Chinese : Bing dou, Bing dou (Bing dau, Cantonese), Xiao bian dou,Bian dou.
 Danish : Linse, Linser;Lenteja;
 Dutch : Linze, Linzen.
 English : Lentil, Cultivated lentil.
 Finnish : Linssi.
 Italian: Lenticchia;
 German: Linse
 Sanskrit / Indian Name: Masura

 

 Basic Botanical Data and Identification of Lentil:
 Lentils Growth Habits and Morphology Description:
 Lentil (Lens culinaris L.)and the genus spectrum of Lentil:
 History and story of Lentils:from ancestors to modern times.
 Botany:Taxonomy, Morphology and Floral Biology:Physical Characteristics,Chemistry.
 Uses of lentil seed:Edible,Medicinal uses.
 Mordern Research of lentils:Proanthocyanidin,amino acids,Agglutinin.
 Preparation and cooking of Lentils
 Nutrients of lentils:


   Lentils Growth Habits and Morphology Description:

Lentils - the lentil is an ancient food plant. It has long fruits or pods, which look like those of the pea and bean.
 Lentil plants are slender, semi-erect annuals with compound leaves (4 to 7 pairs of leaflets) with a tendril at the tips. Plants normally range from 12 to 20 in. tall, the taller plants resulting from cool growing season temperatures, good moisture and good fertility. Plants can have single stems or many branches depending upon the population in the field.
 Flowering begins on the lowest branches, gradually moving up the plant and continuing until harvest. Each flower produces a short pod containing one or two lens-shaped seeds. Flowers can be white, lilac or pale blue in color and are self-pollinated. At maturity plants tend to lodge because of their weak stems.
 Lentil produced in North America has larger seeds than that from India and the Near East. The seeds (2 to 7 mm in diameter) come in colors of tan, brown, or black, and some varieties produce purple or black mottled seeds. Lentil seed number varies from 15,600 to 100,000 seeds/lb.
 The seeds of the lentil are used as food. Lentil seeds can be described as shaped like lens. Lentil seeds have a distinct flavor, and are among the most nutritious legumes. They are rich in protein and carbohydrates and are usually used to make soups. The lentils plant grows best in light, dry soil. Plants grown in a rich soil don't bear any pods.
 lentil, leguminous Old World annual plant (Lens culinaris) with whitish or pale blue flowers. Its pods contain two greenish-brown or dark-colored seeds, also called lentils, which when fully ripe are ground into meal or used in soups and stews.

 


  Morphology Description:Habitat 0f Lentil:

 Lentil is a small, erect, softly pubescent herb. Leaflets are 4-6 pairs, sessile lanceolate and mucronate. Racemes are 2-4 flowered. Calyx teeth are linear and silky. Corolla is white, rose, red or violet. The Pod is smooth, compressed, oblong or rhomboids, containing two smooth, compressed, lenticular seeds, which vary in colour from pale pinkish buff to Prussian red.Lentils show a wide range of variation in the colour of flowers and the type of pods and seeds. The seeds may have various colours and three major sizes. About 66 pure types have been isolated from seeds, which were collected from different places of India.
 It is widely grown in Mediterranean countries, Europe, N. Africa and in Middle East. It is grown throughout North India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and to a smaller extent in Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is not an important pulse crop in South India.


   Lentil (Lens culinaris L.)and the genus spectrum of Lentil:

 Lentils are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae.
 Lentils (Lens culinaris) are a small legume of the pea family with round, flattened seeds in pods. The Latin name for lentils, 'lens' gives us the name for the lentil-shaped piece of convex glass. They are grown for there seeds, which are dried and used in soups and stews, and are also ground into a flour. The plant itself is used as fodder.
 From the tribe Viceae, Lens is a genus in the family Leguminosae (Fabaceae), commonly known as the legume family.
 The genus Lens consists of the species:
 Lens culinaris Medikus,
 its progenitor Lens orientalis (Boiss.) Hand.-Maz.,
 Lens nigricans (M. Bieb.) Grand.,
 Lens ervoides (Bring.) Grand.,
 Lens odemensis Ladiz.,
 Lens lamottei Czefranova, and
 Lens tomentosus Ladiz. (Ladizinsky et al., 1984; van Oss et al., 1997).


   History and story of Lentils:from ancestors to modern times.

 Lentils, botanically-known as Lens culinaris esculenta, have been a source of sustenance for our ancestors since prehistoric times. The word lentils comes from the Latin lens, and indeed, this bean cousin is shaped like the double convex optic lens which took its name from the lentil. Lentil artifacts have been found on archeological digs dating back 8,000 years, and The Bible's book of Genesis tells the story of Esau, who gave up his birthright for a bowl of crimson lentils and a loaf of bread.
 Known to have been used as early as the Bronze Age, the lentil was introduced to Greece and Egypt before biblical times and was one of the first food plants cultivated in Europe.
 Archaeologists found lentil seeds dating back to the Bronze Age on the St. Peter¡¯s Island in Lake Biel, Switzerland. Lentils are grown in most European countries, Asia, North Africa ands North America.
 Originates from the Near East and central Asia. People were harvesting wild lentils by 11200 years ago and by 8800 years ago they were being cultivated.
 Small seeds of Lentil have been found in archaeological excavations of pre-farming comunities in Syria dating from 9200 to 7500 BC. It is clear that at this time people were harvesting seeds of wild Lentil, wild Barley and wild Einkorn Wheat. It is difficult to establish when Lentil started being domesticated because the only way one can determine evidence of domestication from seeds is an increase in seed size which happened only gradually over a long period of time. However, there is clear evidence from a large store of lentils found at an archaeological site in northern Israel that by 6800 BC Lentil were being cultivated. Lentil seeds are also found abundantly in later Neolithic sites.
 Lens culinaris is indigenous to the Near East and central Asia. The wild subspecies Lens culinaris orientalis is found in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and central Asia. Domestication involved selecting for plants that retain their seeds in the pod so that they are not lost before harvest, and selecting for greater seed size. Like many domesticated food plants, L. culinaris is mainly self-pollinated which means that it is easy to keep separate breeding lines.
 Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) may have been one of the first agricultural crops grown more than 8,500 years ago. Production of this cool season annual crop spread from the Near East to the Mediterranean area, Asia, Europe and finally the Western Hemisphere. It may have been introduced to the United States in the early 1900s. The crop has received little research attention to improve its yield and quality. It grows well in limited rainfall areas of the world.
 Lentil is a pulse (grain legume) crop. In North America much of the acreage is in eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and western Canada where drier growing season conditions prevail. It has been grown in that area since the 1930s as a rotation crop with wheat. Most of the lentil production in the United States and Canada is exported, but domestic consumption is increasing.
 Esau sold his heritage for a mess of lentils: although the name in the Scriptures may have been applied to several plants. Lentils have been valued as an article of food from biblical times. It has been cultivated in India from ancient times. It has also been medicinally used in many European countries.
 The Lentil is most likely the oldest cultivated legume, and is believed to be native to southwestern Asia, perhaps northern Syria. Seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs dating from the 12 Dynasty (2400 B.C.), and there is also evidence of their cultivation as early as 7,000~6,000 B.C. It is best adapted to production in the cooler temperate zones of the world, or the winter season in Mediterranean climates.
 The lentil has been an important crop from the earliest of times and was cultivated along with wheat, barley, peas, and flax. During the Neolithic period they spread to Greece and Bulgaria and during the Bronze Age to the Near East and Mediterranean. They are mentioned in The Bible's first chapter, Genesis, in the story of Esau who gave up his birthright for a dish of lentils (Genesis 25: 30-34). The ancient Greeks also enjoyed lentils, which they not only used in soups but also to make bread and Pliny wrote a description not only of the growing of lentils from seed but also their medicinal properties and the ways they were prepared and cooked lentils for various remedies. The famous Apicius also recorded several recipes for lentils.
 Lentils are widely cultivated throughout Asia, parts of Europe and North Africa, and more than 5 million acres are grown worldwide (1990). They are a staple in much of the Middle East and India.Split lentil (dhal) is an important source of dietary protein in the Indian subcontinent.
 

 

   Botany:Taxonomy, Morphology and Floral Biology:Physical Characteristics,Chemistry.

 The botanical features of Lens culinaris (cultivated lentil) can be described as annual bushy herb, slender almost erect or suberect, much-branched, softly hairy; stems slender, angular, 15-75 cm height (Duke, 1981; Muehlbauer et al., 1985). Ten to sixteen leaflets are subtended on the rachis (40-50 mm); upper leaves have simple tendrils while lower leaves are mucronate (Muehlbauer et al., 1985). "The leaves are alternate, compound, pinnate, usually ending in a tendril or bristly; leaflets 4-7 pairs, alternate or opposite; oval, sessile, 1-2 cm long; stipules small, entire; stipules absent; pods oblong, flattened or compressed, smooth, to 1.3 cm long, 1-2-seeded; seed biconvex, rounded, small, 4-8 mm ¡Á 2.2-3 mm, lens-shaped, green, greenish-brown or light red speckled with black; the weight of 100 seeds range from 2 to 8 g; cotyledons red, orange, yellow, or green, bleaching to yellow, often showing through the testa, influencing its apparent color" (Kay, 1979; Duke, 1981; and Muehlbauer et al., 1995). Flowers are small, pale blue, purple, white or pink, in axillary 1-4-flowered racemes; 1-4 flowers are borne on a single peduncle and a single plant can produce upto 10-150 peduncles each being 2.5-5 cm long (Muehlbauer et al., 1985). Flowering proceeds acropetally. The size of seeds increase from the types grown in eastern regions to western types. Two types, namely; macrosperma, found mainly in the Mediterranean region and the New World (seed size ranging from 6 to 9 mm in diameter and yellow cotyledons with little or no pigmentation), and microsperma (2 to 6 mm with red orange or yellow cotyledons) found on the Indian subcontinent, Near East and East Africa, respectively, are known (Hawtin et al.,1980; Muehlbauer et al, 1985). The first one includes the Chilean or yellow cotyledon types while the latter includes the small seeded Persian or red cotyledon lentils (Kay, 1979). Germination is hypogeal and this keeps the developing seedlings below ground level which reduces the effects of freezing and other desiccating environmental conditions (Muehlbauer et al.1985).

  Physical Characteristics:

 Annual growing to 0.45m. It is not frost tender. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Cleistogomy (self-pollinating without flowers ever opening). The plant is self-fertile. It can fix Nitrogen. We rate it 4 out of 5 for usefulness.
 The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

 


  Types of Lentils:

 As mentioned above, there are many varieties of lentil grown and eaten throughout the world, but the three most common types used in cooking are brown, red and green.
 Brown lentils , also known as continental or Egyptian lentils, are generally the least expensive and more easily obtained. They are mildein flavour and hold their shape well after cooking, although they easily turn mushy if overcooked. They can be cooked in about 35 minutes although if you want to ensure they remain firm, you can add oil to the cooking water and cook them for a shorter period, about 20 minutes
 Red lentils are less common than brown lentils and have a slightly sweeter taste than the brown. They take a little less time to cook although they tend to become somewhat mushy and are therefore more suitable to soups and stews.
 Green lentils, also know as Puy or French lentils, are the finest but most expensive lentils. They are the meatiest, richest tasting and remain quite firm after cooking making them an excellent choice for salads. Originally grown in the volcanic soils of Puy in France, the are now also grown in North America and Italy.
 Two less common but interesting lentils which you many not have seen are Beluga Lentils which, as the name implies, are black and once cooked they glisten which makes them look like beluga caviar and White Lentils (skinned and split Black Lentils) which have a very smooth texture are suitable for chilled vegetable salads and stuffing mixes


  Constituents and Phytochemicals:

 Principal Constituents:Lentils are valued for their high protein content (about 30%). The principal protein is globulin.

 Protein concentration of lentils reportedly range from 22-34.6%, and 100 g of dried seeds contain 340-346 g calories, 12% moisture, 20.2 g protein, 0.6 g fat, 65.0 g total carbohydrate, about 4 g fiber, 2.1 g ash, 68 mg Ca, 325 mg P, 7.0 mg Fe, 29 mg Na, 780 mg K, 0.46 mg thiamine, 0.33 mg riboflavin, 1.3 mg niacin (Adsule et al., 1989; Muehlbauer et al., 1985). Among the cool season legume crops, lentil is the richest in the important amino acids (lysine, arginine, leucine, and sulpher containing amino acids) (Williams et al., 1994). The starch content ranges from 35-53% in the seed and 42% in dry matter while amylose varies from 20.7 to 38.5% of the seed starch (Huisman and van der poel, 1994; Hulse, 1994). "One hundred grams of decorticated lentil seed contain 344 calories, 9.9 % moisture, 25.8 g protein, 1.8 g fat, 58.8 g total carbohydrate, 0.9 g fiber, 3.7 g ash, 24 mg Ca, 271 mg P, 10.6 mg Fe, 0.47 mg thiamine, 0.21 mg riboflavin, and 1.5 mg niacin. Lentils are a good source of B vitamins, containing per 100 g: 0.26 mg thiamine, 0.21 mg riboflavin, 1.7 mg nicotinic acid, 223 mg choline, 107 mg folic acid, 130 mg inositol, 1.6 mg pantothenic acid, 13.2 mg biotin, and 0.49 mg pyridoxine. Vitamins, except folic and pantothenic acids, increase markedly during sprouting. Dry lentil husks contain 11.1% protein (1.3% digestible), 0.7% fat, 47.5% carbohydrate, 25.6% fiber, and 3.1% ash" (Duke, 1981). "About 90% of lentil protein is found in the cotyledons with albumins and globulins being the major fractions. Digestibility coefficients for lentil are relatively high and range from 78-93%, while biological values range from 32-58%. Oleic, palmitic and linoleic are the dominant fatty acids" (Hulse, 1994).

 The seeds contain flavonoids, kaempferol-3-a-L-rhamnopyranoside-7-O-?-glucopyranoside and kaempferol- 7-O-rutinoside, saccharides, ciceritol (manninotriose, a-D-galactopyranosyl-(1->6)-a-D-galactopyranosyl-(1->2)-4-O-methyl- chiro-inositol), D-glucose, D-fructose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose and verbascose, and sterol, 24-methylene-25-methylcholesterol.
 Lentils are unusually high in protein content and are much used for food in Europe, especially by the poor, and increasingly in the United States. Many varieties are cultivated, for the seeds as well as for forage.
 Lentils are rich in protein and carbohydrates, and are a good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron and B vitamins. Lentils are found in various colors, white, green, red, yellow, brown, and orange, and are sold dried, like beans.


 


   Uses of lentil seed:Edible,Medicinal uses.

 Lentil is a nutritious food legume. It is cultivated for its seed and mostly eaten as dhal.
 Dhal is seed that is decorticated and split. The primary product is the seed which has a relatively higher contents of protein, carbohydrate and calories compared to other legumes and is the most desired crop because of its high average protein content and fast cooking characteristic in many lentil producing regions (Muehlbauer et al., 1985). It can be used as a main dish, side dish, or in salads. Seeds can be fried and seasoned for consumption; flour is used to make soups, stews, purees, and mixed with cereals to make bread and cakes; and as a food for infants (Williams and Singh, 1988). Even though lentils are considered to be highly nutritious, they contain antinutritional factors such as, trypsin inhibitors, hemagglutinins, and oligosaccharides that cause flatulence. These problems can be greatly reduced by heating and germination (Jambunathan et al., 1994). Williams et al. (1994) reported that lentils have the least while faba bean generally have the highest concentrations of these antinutritional factors. Tannins are present in high concentrations in the seed coat; however tannins can be removed by processing (Williams et al., 1994), most often to remove the seedcoats. Husks, dried leaves, stems, fruit walls and bran (residues), can be fed to livestock. Lentil residues contain about 10.2% moisture, 1.8 % fat, 4.4% protein, 50% carbohydrate, 21.4% fiber, and 12.2% ash (Muehlbauer et al., 1985). According to Muehlbauer et al. (1985), when production of forage crops fall below the level required in the market, lentil residue commands an equal or a better price than lentil seeds in some Middle Eastern countries. Green plants make valuable green manure. Seeds are a source of commercial starch for textile and printing industries (Kay, 1979).

 Edible Uses:Seed; Seedpod.
 Seed - cooked or sprouted and eaten raw. A very nutritious food, the seeds can be cooked on their own or added to soups, stews etc. The seed can be soaked for 12 hours in warm water and then allowed to sprout for about 5 days.They have a crunchy, fresh flavour. Lentils are more digestible than many legumes[K]. The dried seed can also be ground into a powder and used with cereal flours in making bread etc, this greatly enhances the value of the protein in the bread. The seed stores better if it is left in its husk.
 Young seedpods - used fresh or cooked like green beans
 Lentil is a protein/calorie crop. Protein content ranges from 22 to 35%, but the nutritional value is low because lentil is deficient in the amino acids methionine and cystine. Lentil is an excellent supplement to cereal grain diets because of its good protein/ carbohydrate content. It is used in soups, stews, casseroles and salad dishes. Sometimes they are difficult to cook because of the hard seed coat that results from excessively dry production conditions.
 Lentils which fail to meet food grade standards (graded #3 or below) can be used as livestock feed because of their high protein content and lack of digestive inhibitors.
 Lentil can be used as a green manure crop and one particular Canadian variety, Indianhead, provides a large amount of fixed nitrogen (estimated to be 20 lb/acre).

 


  Traditional Medicinal Uses:

 Lentils are supposed to remedy constipation and other intestinal afflictions. "In India, lentils are poulticed onto the ulcers that follow smallpox and other slow-healing sores" (Duke, 1981). In the 6th century, chickpeas were believed to be an aphrodisiac; while curiously enough, lentils were considered to have the opposite effect, and this was probably the reason why the lentil was included in the diet in monasteries on meatless days (Van der Maesen, 1972).
 Pharmacology: In general proteins are nourishing and tonic. Also lentil is astringent.
 Toxicology: There is no adverse effect reported on usage of this plant.
 Indications: It cures skin diseases. Seeds are considered to be tonic and blood enriching.


  Medicinal virtues:

 The flour or meal made from the seeds, which ripens in midsummer, can be made into an emollient cataplasm and will stop the fluxes. The seeds, eaten with their skins, bind the body, but the liquid they are boiled in loosens the belly. The flowers are used outwardly in cataplasms for the same purposes as Bean flowers.

  Modern uses:

 Lentils have been an important food since ancient times, because of their protein content. Sprouted Lentils now have a reputation as a 'health food'. The seeds sprout quickly if covered in water overnight, are strained, and then rinsed twice a day so that they stay moist. The sprouts turn protein into peptogen and are rich in vitamins. They do not need so much cooking as Beans.
 


   Mordern Research of lentils:Proanthocyanidin,amino acids,Agglutinin.

  Proanthocyanidin composition in the seed coat of lentils (Lens culinaris L.):

 Lentils (Lens culinaris L.) are a popular food in many countries. However, little is known about their phenolic composition.
 Because polyphenols in lentils are located essentially in their seed coat, the objective of this work was to study the composition of proanthocyanidins, the major group of polyphenols, in this part of the tissue.
 The use of C(18) Sep-Pak cartridges permitted the fractionation of lentil seed coat extract into monomer, oligomer, and polymer proanthocyanidin fractions. Subsequent thiolysis of oligomer and polymer fractions followed by HPLC analysis allowed the mean degree of polymerization (mDP) and the structural composition of proanthocyanidins to be determined. A fractionation of lentil seed coat extracts on a polyamide column followed by HPLC and HPLC-DAD-MS analyses was used to identify the individual proanthocyanidins. The results showed that the major monomeric flavan-3-ol was (+) catechin-3-glucose, with lesser amounts of (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin. In the oligomer fraction, various dimer, trimer, and tetramer proanthocyanidins constituted of catechin, gallocatechin, and catechin gallate units were identified, and several procyanidins and prodelphinidins from pentamers to nonamers constitute the polymer fraction. The most abundant proanthocyanidins in the seed coat of lentils are the polymers (65-75%), with a mDP of 7-9, followed by the oligomers (20-30%), with a mDP of 4-5.


 


  Identification of uncommon amino acids in the lentil seed (Lens culinaris Med.).:

 The fraction of the free basic amino acids in the lentil seed was shown to contain gamma-hydroxyarginine, gamma-hydroxyornithine and homoarginine besides the common amino acids. Similar distribution was found in 5 varieties of lentil, with hydroxyarginine and arginine dominating. The significance of these findings with regard to chemotaxonomy and lentil consumption is discussed.
 The amino acid content of seeds and 4-day-old seedlings were studied in five species of lentil: Lens culinaris, L. orientalis, L. ervoides, L. nigricans and L. odemensis. Free amino acid and also total protein amino acid content after HCl hydrolysis were determined by HPLC. The nonprotein UV-absorbing amino acids were determined by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The content of free protein amino acids in seeds varied among species and increased dramatically after germination. Asparagine is quantitatively most important in both seed and seedling. The content of free nonprotein amino acids is variable in seeds and seedlings. gamma-Hydroxyarginine, gamma-hydroxyornithine, alpha-aminobutyric acid and taurine were found in both seeds and seedlings. Homoarginine was found in four species but not in L. orientalis while gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), alpha-aminoadipic acid (alpha-aaa) and three isoxazolinone derivatives: beta-(isoxazolin-5-on-2-yl)-alanine (BIA), gamma-glutamyl-BIA (gamma-glu-BIA) and 2-carboxymethyl-isoxazolin-5-one (CMI) were found exclusively in the seedlings. CMI was identified for the first time in lentil species. Lathyrine, beta-(2-amino-pyrimidine-4-yl)-alanine, which was reported to be in the seeds of some Lathyrus species was confirmed to be present also in the seedling of L. culinaris (trace amount), L. nigricans and L. odemensis. Trigonelline (N-methyl-nicotinic acid), a plant hormone, is present both in seeds and seedlings in different concentrations except in L. ervoides. The different combination of nonprotein amino acids among the species gives indication of their genetic relationship and might partly explain the varying compatibility for interspecies crossing.


  Lens Culinaris Agglutinin (isolated from Lens culinaris (lentil) seeds).:

 Lens culinaris agglutinin has a molecular weight of approximately 49,000 and is composed of four subunits - two of about 17,000 daltons and two of 8,000 daltons. The isoelectric point of LCA is approximately pH 8.5. LCA recognizes sequences containing a-linked mannose residues. Like other mannose specific lectins, divalent cations such as calcium and manganese are required for sugar binding activity.
 By recognizing additional sugars as part of the receptor structure, LCA has a narrower specificity than Con A. For example, an a-linked fucose residue attached to the N-acetylchitobiose portion of the core oligosaccharide markedly enhances affinity. By exploiting this narrower specificity, glycoproteins and glycopeptides can be subfractionated with LCA after initial isolation with Con A.
 LCA has been employed to separate lymphocyte populations, as a potent T-cell mitogen, and as one of the most effective agents in preventing skin allograft rejection in model systems. LCA is also used to purify numerous glycoproteins (including immunoglobulins, histocompatibility antigens, a2-macroglobulin, etc.) as well as to fractionate glycopeptides from a variety of glycoproteins.
 Inhibiting/Eluting Sugar: 200 mM a-methyl mannoside/200 mM a-methyl glucoside mixture

 


   Preparation and cooking of Lentils

 As a tasty and plentiful source of protein, lentils graced the tables of peasants and kings alike. Poor Catholics who could not afford fish during the season of Lent substituted lentils.
 One advantage of lentils over other legumes is that they do not require soaking. You can soak them for a few hours if you wish and this will reduce the cooking time by about half.
 Before cooking with lentils it is advisable to rinse them in cold water and pick through them for any little stones which may be present. When cooking lentils by themselves, in preparation for adding to a recipe or as an accompaniment, use 3 times the amount of water to lentils and avoid cooking with anything acidic, such as vinegar, as that retards the cooking process. It is possible to substitute one type of lentil for another although you may need to adjust the cooking time. Cookings times for the main three types of lentils are:-
 Brown Lentils - 35 minutes
 Red Lentils - 10-15 minutes
 Puy (green) Lentils - 20 minutes
 Lentils are an excellent meat substitute

 The lowly lentil has been sustaining man for thousands of years. Some foodies once considered lentils as poor man's food and refused to eat them because they are so inexpensive. Although they may be cheap, lentils are very nutritious, filling, and more importantly, arguably the most flavorful of all the legumes. Learn more about lentils and try some interesting old and new lentil recipes.


   Nutrients of lentils:
 

   Lentil Classification

Eston Class	French Green	Laird Class
Red	Richlea Class	Spanish Brown

  Scientific References:

  1.logogriph of lentil and the differance?: Lens culinaris Medic,Lens esculenta Moench,Lens culinaris Medik. subsp. culinaris,Lentil,Adas,Mercimek,Messer,Masser,Cicer lens Willd,Ervum lens L,Lens esculenta Moench,Lens culinaris Medik., Lens esculenta Moench,Lentilla lens,W.Wight ex D.Fairchild, Cicer lens (L.) Willd., Ervum lens L., Vicia lens (L.) Cosson & Germ., Lens lens Huth,Black lentil, Brown lentil, Green lentil, Green mung bean,Large-seeded lentil,Lentil, Red mung bean,Small-seeded lentil,Wild lentil,Yellow lenti,Ervum lens L.;Lens esculenta Moench;Lens lens Huth;Vicia lens (L.)Cosson & Germ.;Common Lentil;Lenteja;Lentil;Lentille,Massurmoha,Buromussur,Masur,Masuri, Masuridal,Pe ni,Bing dou,Bing dou,Bang d¨¢u,Xiao bian dou,Bian dou,Linse, Linser;Lenteja,Linze,Linzen,Lentil,Cultivated lentil,Linssi,Lenticchia,Linse,Masura....