PHASEOLUS 



MUNGO 



KIDNEY BEANS OF INDIA 



Medicine. 

 Fodder. 



D.E.P., 

 vi., pt. i., 

 186-7. 



Lima. 



Seasons. 



Poisonous 

 Property. 



Prussic Acid. 



Pale- coloured 

 Seeds preferable. 



Burma Beans. 



Feeding 

 Material. 



D.E.P., 

 vi., pt. i., 

 187-91. 

 Urd or 

 Udid. 



especially in Bombay, as a VEGETABLE. The pulse is split and eaten as 

 ddl, also cooked in various ways. It is considered a useful MEDICINAL 

 diet in cases of flatulence, and as a food in fever. The whole plant is 

 a valuable FODDER and is frequently grown, either alone or mixed with 

 some millet, for this purpose exclusively. [Cf. Church, Food,-Grains of 

 Ind., 1886, 152 ; Leather, Agri. Ledg., 1903, No. 7, 152, 156, 181.] 



P. lunatus, Linn. ; Kew Mus. Guide, 1907, 68. Lima or Duffin 

 Bean, kursumbulle-puttie, bunbur-butti, tik-bit-zim, kerow-simbi, kataridabooa 

 mah, udadyaweli, pegyi, etc. A tall biennial, with long scimitar-shaped 

 pods and large seeds of variable colour. According to De Candolle, this 

 is a native of Brazil. In India it is very generally cultivated, especially 

 in Assam, Burma, Bengal, the United Provinces, the Panjab, etc. 



According to Firminger (Man. Gard. Ind. (ed. Cameron), 180), the seed should 

 be sown in the plains during October (or just when the rains are over) and in rows 

 about 4 inches apart ; on the hills the sowing season is from March to June. 

 The ripe seeds of the best kinds are pure ivory-white, and, when cooked in a 

 similar way to haricot or broad beans, are used as a VEGETABLE and said to have 

 the flavour of roasted chestnuts. Duthie says the young pods are sliced and 

 cooked like French beans. 



Interest has recently been aroused in this bean owing to the poisonous pro- 

 perties which the species sometimes exhibits. A report was issued by Dunstan 

 on its chemical composition (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1903, 72, 285 ; also Agri. Ledg., 

 1905, No. 2). The first specimens examined came from Mauritius, where the 

 plant is raised in a practically wild state and used as a green manure. Chemical 

 examination showed the presence of a cyanogenetic glucoside (phaseolunatin) 

 and an enzyme. When these two were brought into intimate contact, the 

 glucoside was decomposed by the enzyme, yielding, amongst other substances, 

 about 0'04 to 0'09 per cent, by weight of prussic acid, the largest quantity being 

 found in seeds with dark, purple-coloured testa, and the smallest in seeds with 

 almost white testa. In partially or wholly cultivated forms, the testa, is either 

 pink with a few purplish spots, pale cream-coloured or even white. Dunstan 

 states that these are undoubtedly less poisonous than the almost wild type grown 

 in Mauritius. While the Mauritius beans were being investigated there were 

 imported into England from India quantities of beans described as Rangoon, 

 Burma or Paigya beans, which were intended to be used in preparing food-stuffs 

 for cattle. Plants were grown from some of them, and identified as f. it*s. 

 [Cf. Bull. Imp. Inst., 1903, i., 16, 115]. Subsequently authentic samples of the 

 beans were procured from Pakokku district, Burma, and these were found to 

 contain 0'009 per cent, of prussic acid, a quantity quite sufficient to render them 

 undesirable for consumption, at any rate in the raw state. Dunstan concludes 

 by advising the cultivators of this particular bean to grow perfectly white forms 

 rather than coloured varieties. Leather (Agri. Journ. Ind., 1906, i., pt. iii., 224), 

 in a paper on Cyanogenesis in Plants, alludes to the poisonous property. " I 

 have obtained prussic acid," he says, " from Rangoon beans (JP/ISPOI 

 tinnitus) and vdl (OoHcHos lablab) by simply allowing the crushed seeds to remain 

 in cold water for a few hours " (see p. 767). More recently, Dunstan and Henry 

 (Journ. Board Agri., 1908, xiv., 722-31) have given additional particulars and 

 reviewed the results obtained by other investigators. They then conclude that 

 " it is undesirable that any further definite advice should be given to discdhtinue 

 the use of Rangoon beans, since in spite of the fact that both the red and white 

 varieties have now been shown to yield prussic acid, there is at present no evidence 

 that this is formed in quantity sufficient to be injurious, and although these 

 beans have been used as a feeding stuff now for some years, no poisoning cases 

 have been traced to them so far as is known. At the same time, since the beans 

 yield prussic acid in varying quantity, it is clearly not permissible to recommend 

 them for use as a feeding material. All that can fairly be done at the moment 

 is to place the facts on record." [Cf. Church, Food-Grains of Ind., 1886, 155.] 



P. Mungt), Linn., Mant., 101 ; Prain, in Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1898, 

 Ixvi., 423 ; var. Roxburghii, Prain, Beng. Plants, i., 387 ; P. Mungo, var. 

 radiatus, Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 203 (in part); Duthie and Fuller, Field and Garden 



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