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Importance of Legumes and Legume-Derived Compounds in Medicine and Agriculture

Castanospermum australe, endemic to eastern Australia, contains polyhydroxyalkaloids (compounds isolated from a range of legumes) that are being investigated for their use in the treatment of cancer, HIV-related conditions and diabetes. © G.P. Lewis.

Our research into animal-legume interactions and the ethnobotanical uses of legumes has improved our understanding of the diverse uses made of legumes and the compound diversity associated with these uses.  For example, pigeonpea (Cajanus) and chickpea (Cicer) are used by many communities in semi-arid tropical areas of Africa and Asia as a major source of protein. They can be totally destroyed by insects and diseases.  Their wild relatives, however, are often resistant to these pests and pathogens. We have identified compounds in these wild species that confer this resistance and therefore traditional breeding methods could use these as markers to help introduce resistance into commercial varieties.  Specifically, in wild species of chickpea we have identified compounds that confer resistance to one of its most important diseases, Fusarium wilt and have potent anti-insect properties.  We have also identified a range of compounds on the pod surfaces of cultivated pigeonpea that stimulate the egg-laying behaviour of the pod-borer Helicoverpa armigera and these may be targets for deselection in breeding.  Other compounds from wild species of pigeonpea deter egg-laying, however, it appears to be the relative proportion of these compounds that modulates the behaviour of the adult moths rather than the presence or absence of specific compounds.  Thus the value to breeding of this character is less clear. This research is undertaken in collaboration with organisations including International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich. 

Some of the compounds identified during our research on insect-legume interactions have pharmacological properties.  For example, the non-protein amino acid L-Dopa (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylaline) from Mucuna has potential uses in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and another group of compounds the polydroxyalkaloids isolated from a range of legumes, including Castanospermum, are being investigated for their use in the treatment of cancer, HIV-related conditions and diabetes.  As part of a review of 1,700 species of plants used traditionally to treat diabetes we identified over 80 species from 47 genera of Leguminosae that are reported to have anti-diabetic properties.  We are currently studying the active compounds in these species which include species of Phaseolus, Pterocarpus, Indigofera and Cajanus.  The objective of this project is to identify more of the compounds in legumes that can explain the traditional medicinal uses of different species of legumes and to identify chemical traits in plants that could be used to improve our understanding of insect-legume interactions.  This project integrates our knowledge about the ecological role of legume-derived compounds, the traditional uses of the plants and the distribution of secondary metabolites in the legumes.  Thus this project links very closely with the outcomes from the Systematic Phytochemistry of Legumes project.

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