Bean

A bean is the seed of plants in many genera of the legume family used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are sold fresh or preserved through drying. Beans have been cultivated since the seventh millennium BCE in Thailand, and since the second millennium BCE in Europe and in Peru. Most beans, with the exception of peas, are summer crops. As legumes, the plants fix nitrogen and form seeds with a high protein content. They are produced on a scale of millions of tons annually in many countries; India is the largest producer.
Dried beans are traditionally soaked and boiled, and used in traditional dishes throughout the world including salads, soups, and stews such as chili con carne. Some are processed into tofu; others are fermented to form tempeh. Guar beans are used for their gum. The unripe seedpods of some varieties are also eaten whole as green beans or edamame. Some types are sprouted to form beansprouts.
Many fully ripened beans contain toxins like phytohaemagglutinin and require cooking to make them safe to eat. Many species contain indigestible oligosaccharides that produce flatulence. Beans have traditionally been seen as a food of the poor.

Etymology and naming

The word "bean" and its Germanic cognates have existed in common use in West Germanic languages since before the 12th century, referring to broad beans, chickpeas, and other pod-borne seeds. This was long before the New World genus Phaseolus was known in Europe. With the Columbian exchange of domestic plants between Europe and the Americas, use of the word was extended to pod-borne seeds of Phaseolus, such as the common bean and the runner bean, and the related genus Vigna. The term has long been applied generally to seeds of similar form, such as Old World soybeans and lupins, and to the fruits or seeds of unrelated plants such as coffee beans and vanilla beans. This article discusses only legumes.

History

Beans in an early cultivated form were grown in Thailand from the early seventh millennium BCE, predating ceramics. Beans were deposited with the dead in ancient Egypt. Not until the second millennium BCE did cultivated, large-seeded broad beans appear in the Aegean region, Iberia, and transalpine Europe. In the Iliad, there is a passing mention of beans and chickpeas cast on the threshing floor.
Cowpeas, which include black eyed peas, were domesticated in sub Saharan Africa during the second millennium BCE.
The oldest-known domesticated beans in the Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave, Peru, dated to around the second millennium BCE. Genetic analyses of the common bean Phaseolus show that it originated in Mesoamerica, and subsequently spread southward.
Most of the kinds of beans commonly eaten today are part of the genus Phaseolus, which originated in the Americas. The first European to encounter them was Christopher Columbus, while exploring what may have been the Bahamas, and saw them growing in fields. Five kinds of Phaseolus beans were domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples, selecting pods that did not open and scatter their seeds when ripe: common beans grown from Chile to the northern part of the United States; lima and sieva beans ; and the less widely distributed teparies, scarlet runner beans, and polyanthus beans.
Pre-Columbian peoples as far north as the Atlantic seaboard grew beans in the "Three Sisters" method of companion planting. The beans were interplanted with maize and squash. Beans were cultivated across Chile in Pre-Hispanic times, likely as far south as the Chiloé Archipelago.

Diversity

Taxonomic range

Beans are legumes, but from many different genera, native to different regions.

Genus	Species and common varieties	Probable home region	Distribution, climate	Notes
Phaseolus	P. vulgaris: kidney, pinto, navy, black, Borlotti beans P. lunatus: Lima beans P. coccineus: runner, flat beans P. acutifolius: tepary bean	The Americas	Tropical, subtropical, warm temperate	Some contain high levels of toxic phytohemagglutinin.
Vigna	V. radiata: mung bean V. mungo: urad bean V. unguiculata : yardlong bean, black-eyed peas V. aconitifolia: moth bean V. angularis: adzuki beans	Mostly South Asia	Equatorial, pantropical, warm subtropical, hot temperate
Cajanus	C. cajan: pigeon pea	Indian Subcontinent	Pantropical, equatorial
Lens	L. culinaris: red, green, and Puy lentils	Near East/Levant	Temperate, subtropical, cool tropical
Cicer	C. arietinum: garbanzo beans	Turkey/Levant/Near East	Temperate, subtropical, cool tropical
Vicia	V. faba: broad beans V. ervilia: bitter vetch V. sativa: common vetch	Near East	Subtropical, temperate	Causes favism in susceptible people.
Glycine	G. max: soybean	East Asia	Hot temperate, Subtropical, cool tropical
Macrotyloma	M. uniflorum: horsegram	South Asia	Tropical, subtropical
Mucuna	M. pruriens: velvet bean	Tropical Asia and Africa	Tropical, warm subtropical	Contains L-DOPA, and smaller amounts of other psychoactive compounds. Can cause itching and rashes on contact.
Lupinus	L. albus: white lupin L. mutabilis: tarwi/Andean lupin	The Mediterranean, Balkans, Levant , The Andes	Subtropical, temperate	Requires soaking to remove toxins.
Ceratonia	C. siliqua: carob bean	Mediterranean, Middle East	Subtropical, arid subtropical, hot temperate
Canavalia	C. gladiata: sword bean C. ensiformis: Jack beans	South Asia or Africa, Brazil and South America	Tropical
Cyamopsis	C. tetragonoloba: guar bean	Africa or South Asia	Tropical, semi-arid	Source of Guar gum
Lablab	L. purpureus: hyacinth/lablab bean	South Asia, Indian Subcontinent or Africa	Tropical
Psophocarpus	P. tetranoglobulus:'' winged bean	New Guinea	Tropical, equatorial

Conservation of cultivars

The biodiversity of bean cultivars is threatened by modern plant breeding, which selects a small number of the most productive varieties. Efforts are being made to conserve the germplasm of older varieties in different countries. As of 2023, the Norwegian Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds more than 40,000 accessions of Phaseolus bean species.

Cultivation

Agronomy

Many beans are summer crops that need warm temperatures to grow, with peas as an exception. Legumes are capable of nitrogen fixation and hence need less fertiliser than most plants. Maturity is typically 55–60 days from planting to harvest. As the pods mature, they turn yellow and dry up, and the beans inside change from green to their mature colour. Many beans are vines needing external support, such as "bean cages" or poles. Native Americans customarily grew them along with corn and squash, the tall stalks acting as support for the beans.
More recently, the commercial "bush bean" which does not require support and produces all its pods simultaneously has been developed.

Production

The production data for legumes are published by FAO in three categories:

Pulses dry: all mature and dry seeds of leguminous plants except soybeans and groundnuts.
Oil crops: soybeans and groundnuts.
Fresh vegetable: immature green fresh fruits of leguminous plants.

The following is a summary of FAO data.

	Country	2016	Share
Total		81.80	100%
1	India	17.56	21.47%
2	Canada	8.20	10.03%
3	Myanmar	6.57	8.03%
4	China	4.23	5.17%
5	Nigeria	3.09	3.78%
6	Russia	2.94	3.60%
7	Ethiopia	2.73	3.34%
8	Brazil	2.62	3.21%
9	Australia	2.52	3.09%
10	United States	2.44	2.98%
11	Niger	2.06	2.51%
12	Tanzania	2.00	2.45%
	Others	24.82	30.34%

The world leader in production of dry beans, is India, followed by Myanmar and Brazil. In Africa, the most important producer is Tanzania.

Rank	Country	Production	Footnote
1.		5,460,000	FAO figure
2.		3,053,012	Official figure
3.		3,035,290	Aggregated data
4.		1,495,180	Semi-official data
5.		1,281,586	Official figure
6.		1,267,648	FAO figure
7.		1,056,071	Official figure
8.		774,366	FAO figure
9.		633,823	Semi-official data
10		603,980	Official figure
Total	World	27,545,942	Aggregated data

''Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization ''