Nutritional, chemical, and antioxidant screening of selected varieties of lentils (Lens culinaris spp.) from organic and conventional agriculture.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Laboratory bench chemical analysis without human or animal subjects (graded by design analogy).
PubMed 37535858 · doi:10.1002/jsfa.12896
What was done
Selected varieties of lentils (Lens culinaris spp.) grown under organic and conventional farming systems were evaluated in the laboratory for nutritional profiles, chemical composition, and antioxidant capacity. Analyses included macronutrient and carbohydrate profiling (fibre, starch), sugars by HPLC with refraction index detection, organic acids (oxalic, quinic, malic, shikimic) by UFLC-PDA, tocopherols by HPLC with fluorescence detection, fatty acid methyl esters, and antioxidant assays (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and oxidative haemolysis inhibition).
What was found
Carbohydrates were the predominant macronutrients, with fibre ranging from 11.62% to 27.36% and starch from 41.98% to 50.27%. The Beluga variety exhibited protein content of 21.9–23.3 g/100 g fresh weight and ash of 1.38–1.82 g/100 g fresh weight. Detected compounds included fructose, sucrose, four organic acids, and α- and γ-tocopherol isoforms. Polyunsaturated fatty acids comprised 33.5–46.3% of fatty acids. Lentil variety was found to have a greater influence on nutritional composition than the cultivation method (organic vs. conventional).
Why it matters
This work demonstrates that lentil cultivar selection is more critical for determining macronutrient, micronutrient, and antioxidant composition than whether the crop is grown organically or conventionally.
Limits
The abstract does not state the total number of varieties evaluated, replicates, or growing locations/soil conditions. As a laboratory analytical screening, it does not assess human bioavailability, digestion, or clinical health endpoints.
Cited by
- supports Lentils consist of up to 25% protein and almost 70% carbohydrates.