A bean is a seed of one of several genera of the flowering plant family Fabaceae, which are used for human or animal food.

The word "bean" and its Germanic cognates (e.g., German Bohne) have existed in common use in West Germanic languages since before the 12th century,^[1] referring to broad beans and other pod-borne seeds. This was long before the New World genus Phaseolus was known in Europe. After Columbian-era contact 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 many other seeds of similar form,^[1][2] such as Old World soybeans, peas, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), other vetches, and lupins, and even to those with slighter resemblances, such as coffee beans, vanilla beans, castor beans, and cocoa beans. Thus the term "bean" in general usage can mean a host of different species.^[3]

Seeds called "beans" are often included among the crops called "pulses" (legumes),^[1] although a narrower prescribed sense of "pulses" reserves the word for leguminous crops harvested for their dry grain. The term bean usually excludes legumes with tiny seeds and which are used exclusively for forage, hay, and silage purposes (such as clover and alfalfa). According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization the term "BEANS, DRY" (item code 176)^[3] should include only species of Phaseolus; however, enforcing that prescription has proven difficult for several reasons. One is that in the past, several species, including Vigna angularis (adzuki bean), mungo (black gram), radiata (green gram), and aconitifolia (moth bean), were classified as Phaseolus and later reclassified. Another is that it is not surprising that the prescription on limiting the use of the word, because it tries to replace the word's older senses with a newer one, has never been consistently followed in general usage.^[4][5]

Unlike the closely related pea, beans are a summer crop that need warm temperatures to grow.

Maturity is typically 55–60 days from planting to harvest.^[6] As the bean pods mature, they turn yellow and dry up, and the beans inside change from green to their mature colour. As a vine, bean plants need external support, which may be provided in the form of special "bean cages" or poles. Native Americans customarily grew them along with corn and squash (the so-called Three Sisters),^[7] with the tall cornstalks acting as support for the beans.

In more recent times, the so-called "bush bean" has been developed which does not require support and has all its pods develop simultaneously (as opposed to pole beans which develop gradually).^[8] This makes the bush bean more practical for commercial production.

Beans are one of the longest-cultivated plants.

Broad beans, also called fava beans, in their wild state the size of a small fingernail, were gathered in Afghanistan and the Himalayan foothills.^[9] In a form improved from naturally occurring types, they were grown in Thailand since the early seventh millennium BCE, predating ceramics.^[10] They were deposited with the dead in ancient Egypt. Not until the second millennium BCE did cultivated, large-seeded broad beans appear in the Aegean, Iberia and transalpine Europe.^[11]*Domestication%20of%20Pla]]n the Iliad ssing mention of beans and chickpeas cast on the threshing floor.^[12]

Beans were an important source of protein throughout Old and New World history, and still are today.

The oldest-known domesticated beans in the Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave, an archaeological site in Peru, and dated to around the second millennium BCE.^[13]*World%20Prehistory%20and%20Arch]]However, genetic analyses of the common bean d in Mesoamerica, and subsequently spread southward, along with maize and squash, traditional companion crops.^[14]

Most of the kinds commonly eaten fresh or dried, those of the genus Phaseolus, come originally from the Americas, being first seen by a European when Christopher Columbus, during his exploration of what may have been the Bahamas, found them growing in fields. Five kinds of Phaseolus beans were domesticated^[15] by pre-Columbian peoples: common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) grown from Chile to the northern part of what is now the United States, and lima and sieva beans (Phaseolus lunatus), as well as the less widely distributed teparies (Phaseolus acutifolius), scarlet runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) and polyanthus beans (Phaseolus polyanthus)^[16] One especially famous use of beans by pre-Columbian people as far north as the Atlantic seaboard is the "Three Sisters" method of companion plant cultivation:

Dry beans come from both Old World varieties of broad beans (fava beans) and New World varieties (kidney, black, cranberry, pinto, navy/haricot).

Beans are a heliotropic plant, meaning that the leaves tilt throughout the day to face the sun. At night, they go into a folded "sleep" position.

Currently, the world genebanks hold about 40,000 bean varieties, although only a fraction are mass-produced for regular consumption.^[17]

Some bean types include:

Some kinds of raw beans contain a harmful tasteless toxin, lectin phytohaemagglutinin, that must be removed by cooking. Red kidney beans are particularly toxic, but other types also pose risks of food poisoning. A recommended method is to boil the beans for at least ten minutes; undercooked beans may be more toxic than raw beans.^[18]

Cooking beans, without bringing them to the boil, in a slow cooker at a temperature well below boiling may not destroy toxins.^[18] A case of poisoning by butter beans used to make falafel was reported; the beans were used instead of traditional broad beans or chickpeas, soaked and ground without boiling, made into patties, and shallow fried.^[19]

Bean poisoning is not well known in the medical community, and many cases may be misdiagnosed or never reported; figures appear not to be available.

In the case of the UK National Poisons Information Service, available only to health professionals, the dangers of beans other than red beans were not flagged as of 2008.^[19]

Fermentation is used in some parts of Africa to improve the nutritional value of beans by removing toxins. Inexpensive fermentation improves the nutritional impact of flour from dry beans and improves digestibility, according to research co-authored by Emire Shimelis, from the Food Engineering Program at Addis Ababa University.^[20] Beans are a major source of dietary protein in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.^[21]

It is common to make beansprouts by letting some types of bean, often mung beans, germinate in moist and warm conditions; beansprouts may be used as ingredients in cooked dishes, or eaten raw or lightly cooked. There have been many outbreaks of disease from bacterial contamination, often by salmonella, listeria, and Escherichia coli, of beansprouts not thoroughly cooked,^[22] some causing significant mortality.^[23]

Many types of bean contain significant amounts of antinutrients that inhibit some enzyme processes in the body. Phytic acid and phytates, present in grains, nuts, seeds and beans, interfere with bone growth and interrupt vitamin D metabolism. Pioneering work on the effect of phytic acid was done by Edward Mellanby from 1939.^[24][25]

Beans are high in protein, complex carbohydrates, folate, and iron.^[26] Beans also have significant amounts of fiber and soluble fiber, with one cup of cooked beans providing between nine and 13 grams of fiber.^[26] Soluble fiber can help lower blood cholesterol.^[27]

Consuming beans adds significant amounts of fiber and soluble fiber to a diet, with one cup of cooked beans providing between nine and thirteen grams of fiber.^[26] Soluble fiber can help lower blood cholesterol.^[26] Adults are recommended to have up to two (female), and three (male) servings. 3/4 cup of cooked beans provide one serving.^[28]

Many edible beans, including broad beans and soybeans, contain oligosaccharides (particularly raffinose and stachyose), a type of sugar molecule also found in cabbage. An anti-oligosaccharide enzyme is necessary to properly digest these sugar molecules. As a normal human digestive tract does not contain any anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, consumed oligosaccharides are typically digested by bacteria in the large intestine. This digestion process produces flatulence-causing gases as a byproduct.^[29][30] Since sugar dissolves in water, another method of reducing flatulence associated with eating beans is to drain the water in which the beans have been cooked.

Some species of mold produce alpha-galactosidase, an anti-oligosaccharide enzyme, which humans can take to facilitate digestion of oligosaccharides in the small intestine. This enzyme, currently sold in the United States under the brand-names Beano and Gas-X Prevention, can be added to food or consumed separately. In many cuisines beans are cooked along with natural carminatives such as anise seeds, coriander seeds and cumin.

One effective strategy is to soak beans in alkaline (baking soda) water overnight before rinsing thoroughly.^[31] Sometimes vinegar is added, but only after the beans are cooked as vinegar interferes with the beans' softening.

Fermented beans will usually not produce most of the intestinal problems that unfermented beans will, since yeast can consume the offending sugars.

The production data of legume are published by FAO in three category.

1 Pulses dry: all mature and dry seeds of leguminous plants except soybeans and groundnuts.

2 Oil crops: soybeans and groundnuts.

3 Fresh vegetable: immature green fresh fruits of leguminous plants.

Following are summary of FAO data.^[32]

"Pulses,Total [1726] (dry)" is total of all dry legume mainly consumed as food.

The production results of 2016 was 81.80 million tons.

The production result of Pulses dry in 2016 was increased to 2.0 times from 1961 result, meanwhile population increase was 2.4 times.

Main crops of "Pulses,Total [1726] (dry)" are "Beans, dry [176]" 26.83 million tons, "Peas, dry [187]" 14.36 million tons, "Chick peas [191]" 12.09 million tons, "Cow peas [195]" 6.99 million tons, "Lentils [201]" 6.32 million tons, "Pigeon peas [197]" 4.49 million tons, "Broad beans, horse beans [181]" 4.46 million tons.

In general, the consumption of pulses per capita is decreasing since 1961.

Exception are Lentil and Cowpea.

The world leader in production of Dry Beans (Phaseolus spp).^[35] is Myanmar (Burma), followed by India and Brazil. In Africa, the most important producer is Tanzania.^[36]