Legume flavonoids have received considerable attention due
to their beneficial effects to human health. Various results have been reported
on soybean but little research work has been conducted on other legumes. In
this report, flavonoids in different legume (including soybean, peanut, cowpea,
mung bean and lablab) seeds with different seed-coat colors were quantified by
HPLC. On average, soybean seeds contained significantly higher amounts of
daidzein (315-354 μg /g), genistein (438-458 μg/g) and kaempferol
(38-68 μg/g) while cowpea seeds contained a significantly higher amount of
quercetin (214 and 280 μg/g) than the other legumes. Within the same
species, the difference in quantity of a specific flavonoid among accessions
varied greatly. Daidzein was significantly correlated with genistein and
kaempferol (r = 0.93248, r = 0.58246, P < 0.0001), respectively. Genistein
was also significantly correlated with kaempferol (r = 0.72547, P < 0.0001).
The variation in the flavonoid content detected and seed-coat color observed in
this study would be useful for legume breeders and consumers.