58 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



As a source of nitrogen these legumens in the dietaries of the 

 people of the East play a very important part, and take the place 

 of animal food to a considerable extent. They are extensively 

 used all over India and the tropics, and one member, the soy bean, 

 has been employed for centuries by the Chinese and Japanese in 

 the manufacture of food preparations. Taking the different 

 countries together, they rank next to wheat and maize in impor- 

 tance among vegetable foods, and as a source of protein are 

 superior to most of the cereals. 



The chief protein of the pulses is legumin, which possesses the 

 property of uniting with salts of lime, and the compound so 

 formed is insoluble in water. Pulses should, therefore, never be 

 cooked in hard water, unless the lime in the water has been 

 precipitated by the addition of bicarbonate of soda. " Some of 

 the protein of pulses exists in the form of nitrogen compounds 

 which are not albuminoid which are not flesh-formers, in fact 

 and which, for all we know, may be entirely without nutritive 

 value. These bodies are simpler in constitution than the albumin- 

 oids, and are often of the nature of alkaloids lupinine, a bitter 

 basic substance from lupines is one of these ; asparagine is another. 

 But the quantity of nitrogen existing in the pulse in the form of 

 non-albuminoid compounds of all kinds is small, not exceeding 

 3 to 5 per cent, of the total albuminoids in the common kinds of 

 ripe pulse ; in the seeds, stems, and pods of the unripe plants it is 

 very much larger."* 



Pulses are prepared in India for food in different ways ; occa- 

 sionally they are ground to meal, and the meal baked with the 

 cereal into bread of the unleavened type ; more often they are 

 boiled in water into a form of porridge or thin gruel, and used as 

 a sauce with the bread and vegetables. Some forms, as gram 

 dal, are parched and eaten dry. As will be shown later, the 

 method of cooking pulses makes a considerable difference in the 

 absorbability of the protein element, and probably also on the 

 carbohydrate and fat absorption. When cooked, dal, in what- 

 ever form, takes up a large quantity of water, usually about three 

 and a half times its own weight. This increase in water means a 

 corresponding increase in bulk, which may affect seriously the 

 absorption of protein when the dal is given in large quantities, or 

 when it is combined with a cereal, such as rice, that is of a bulky 

 nature. 



* Church, " Food Grains of India." 



