Chickpea

Chickpeas
Sprouted chickpea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Subfamily:	Faboideae
Genus:	Cicer
Species:	C. arietinum
Binomial name
Cicer arietinum L.
Synonyms[1]
Cicer album hort. Cicer arientinium L. [Spelling variant] Cicer arientinum L. [Spelling variant] Cicer edessanum Bornm. Cicer grossum Salisb. Cicer nigrum hort. Cicer physodes Rchb. Cicer rotundum Alef. Cicer sativum Schkuhr Cicer sintenisii Bornm. Ononis crotalarioides M.E.Jones

The chickpea or chick pea (Cicer arietinum) is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae,^[2][3] cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram,^[4][5] Bengal gram,^[5] garbanzo,^[5] garbanzo bean, or Egyptian pea.^[4] It is one of the earliest cultivated legumes, the oldest archaeological evidence of which was found in Syria.^[6][7][8]

Chickpeas are high in protein. The chickpea is a key ingredient in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines, used in hummus, and, when soaked and coarsely ground with herbs and spices, then made into patties and fried, falafel. As an important part of Indian cuisine, it is used in salads, soups, stews, and curries. In 2023, India accounted for 75% of global chickpea production.^[9]

Chickpeas have been cultivated for at least ten thousand years.

The Latin word cicer evolved into words for chickpeas in nearly all extinct and living Romance languages, including the Mozarabic word chíchar; the Catalan words ceirons, cigró, cigronera, cigrons and ciurons; the Walloon words poes d' souke; the Old French words ceire and cice; and the Modern French terms cicérole, cicer tete-de-belier, and pois chiche.^[14]: 50 These words were borrowed by many geographically neighboring languages, such as the French term pois chiche becoming chich-pease in Old English.^[19][10] The word pease, like the modern words for wheat and corn, was both singular and plural, but since it had an "s" sound at the end of it which became associated with the plural form of nouns, English speakers by the end of the 17th century were starting to refer to a single grain of pease as a pea.^[10]

Other important Proto-Indo-European roots relating to chickpeas are *erəgw[h]-, *eregw(h)o-, and *erogw(h)o-, which were used to denote both the kernel of a

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a member of the genus Cicer and the legume family, Fabaceae.^[22]: 231 Carl Linnaeus described it in the first edition of Species Plantarum in 1753, marking the first use of binomial nomenclature for the plant.^[21]: 11 Linnaeus classified the plant in the genus Cicer, which was the Latin term for chickpeas,^[21]: 2 crediting Joseph Pitton de Tournefort's 1694 publication Elemens de botanique, ou Methode pour connoitre les plantes which called it "Cicer arietinum".^[21]: 11 Tournefort himself repeated the names of the plant that had been used since antiquity.^[21]: 11

The specific epithet arietinum is based on the shape of the seed resembling the head of a ram.^[18]: 3 In Ancient Greece, Theophrastus described one of the varieties of chickpea called "rams" in Historia Plantarum.^[23]: 173 The Roman writer on agriculture Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella wrote about chickpeas in the second book of De re rustica, published in about 64 CE,^[24]: xiv and said that the chickpea was called arietillum.^[24]: 169 Pliny the Elder expanded further in Naturalis Historia that this name was due to the seed's resemblance to the head of a ram.^[24]: 169

Cicer arietinum is the type species of the genus.^[21]: 10 The wild species C. reticulatum is interfertile with C. arietinum and is considered to be the progenitor of the cultivated species.^[25] Cicer echinospermum is also closely related and can be hybridized with both C. reticulatum and C. arietinum, but generally produce infertile seeds.^[25]

The chickpea was originally domesticated along with

The process of domestication involved the selective breeding of plants that produced large, palatable seeds that do not require a dormancy period, plants that have seeds that are easy to separate from the pods, plants with a predictable ripening period to allow a whole field to ripen at once, and plants with desirable physical forms.^[22]: 231 This selective breeding produced several different varieties of chickpeas. In Greece, Theophrastus wrote "Chickpeas ... differ in size, color, taste, and shape; there are the varieties called 'rams' and 'vetch-like' chickpeas, and the intermediate forms" in Historia Plantarum, written between 350 and 287 BCE.^[23]: 173

One key selection factor in the domestication of chickpeas was the selection of a spring-sown cropping season. The evolutionary relatives of Cicer arietinum grow during the Winter and are harvested in the Spring.^[25] In the Near East, more than 80 percent of annual precipitation occurs between the months of December and February, while the long summers are hot and dry.^[28]: 38 Growing in the damp Winter months made the crops vulnerable to Ascochyta blight caused by Didymella rabiei, resulting in crop failures.^[25] Recorded evidence shows that by the Hellenistic period and the time of the Roman Empire, summer cropping of chickpeas was being practiced.^[28]: 38

Sequencing of the genome has been completed for 90 chickpea genotypes, including several wild species.^[29] A collaboration of 20 research organizations, led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), sequenced CDC Frontier, a kabuli chickpea variety, and identified more than 28,000 genes and several million genetic markers.^[30]

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The plant grows to 20–50 cm (8–20 in) high and has small, feathery leaves on either side of the stem. It has white flowers with blue, violet, or pink veins. Chickpeas are a type of pulse, with one seedpod containing two or three peas.

The most common variety of chickpea in South Asia, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Iran is the desi type, also called Bengal gram.^[31] It has small, dark seeds and a rough coat. It can be black, green, or speckled. In Hindi, it is called desi chana 'native chickpea', or kala chana 'black chickpea', and in Assamese and Bengali, it is called boot or chholaa boot. It can be hulled and split to make chana dal, Kurukshetra Prasadam (channa laddu),^[32] and bootor daali.

Around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, the most common variety of chickpea is the kabuli type. It is large and tan-colored, with a smooth coat. It was introduced to India in the 18th century from Afghanistan and is called kabuli chana in Hindi.^[33]

An uncommon black chickpea, ceci neri, is grown only in Apulia and Basilicata, in southern Italy. It is around the same size as garbanzo beans, larger and darker than the 'desi' variety.

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Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on

• Chickpea

Chickpeas are usually rapidly boiled for 10 minutes and then simmered for longer. Dried chickpeas need a long cooking time (1–2 hours), but will easily fall apart when cooked longer. If soaked for 12–24 hours before use, cooking time can be shortened by around 30 minutes. Chickpeas can also be pressure-cooked or sous vide cooked at 90 °C (194 °F).

Mature chickpeas can be cooked and eaten cold in

In Portugal, chickpeas are one of the main ingredients in rancho, eaten with pasta, meat, or rice. They are used in other hot dishes with bacalhau and in soups, meat stews, salads mixed with tuna and vegetables, olive oil, vinegar, hot pepper, and salt. In Spain, they are used cold in tapas and salads, as well as in cocido madrileño.

Hummus is the Arabic word for chickpeas, which are often cooked and ground into a paste and mixed with tahini (sesame seed paste) to make ḥummuṣ bi ṭaḥīna, usually called simply hummus in English. By the end of the 20th century, hummus had become common in American cuisine:^[34] by 2010, 5% of Americans consumed it regularly,^[34] and it was present at some point in 17% of American households.^[35]

In the Middle East, chickpeas are also roasted, spiced, and eaten as a snack, such as leblebi.

Chickpeas and Bengal grams are used to make curries.

In the Philippines, chickpeas preserved in syrup are eaten as sweets and in desserts such as halo-halo.

Ashkenazi Jews traditionally serve whole chickpeas, referred to as arbes (אַרבעס) in Yiddish, at the Shalom Zachar celebration for baby boys. The chickpeas are boiled until soft and served hot with salt and lots of ground black pepper.^[40]

Guasanas or garbanza is a Mexican chickpea street snack. The beans, while still green, are cooked in water and salt, kept in a steamer to maintain their humidity, and served in a plastic bag.

A chickpea-derived liquid (aquafaba) can be used as an egg white replacement to make meringue^[41] or ice cream, with the residual pomace used as flour.^[42]

In 1793, ground, roasted chickpeas were noted by a German writer as a substitute for coffee in Europe.

• 
  Doubles, a street food in Trinidad and Tobago
• 
  Manchego cuisine; chickpea and Silene vulgaris stew (potaje de garbanzos y collejas)
• 
  Italian

  chickpea snack food
• 
  Chakhchoukha in Algerian cuisine; freshly cooked marqa before mixing with rougag
• 
  Chana masala, India
• 
  Halua chickpeas, Bangladesh
• 
  Fried chickpea

Chickpeas are an energy and protein source as animal feed.^[45]

Raw chickpeas have a lower

Experiments have shown that ruminants grow equally well and produce an equal amount and quality of milk when soybean or cereal meals are replaced with chickpeas. Pigs show the same performance, but growing pigs experience a negative effect of raw chickpea feed; extruded chickpeas can increase performance even in growing pigs. Only young broilers (starting period) showed worse performance in poultry diet experiments with untreated chickpeas. Fish performed equally well when extruded chickpeas replaced their soybean or cereal diet.[45] Chickpea seeds have also been used in rabbit diets.^[31]

Chickpea production
2023, millions of tonnes

India	12.3
Australia	0.94
Turkey	0.58
Russia	0.53
Ethiopia	0.45
Myanmar	0.41
World	16.5
Source: FAOSTAT of the United Nations[9]

Secondary components of legumes—such as

In 2023, world production of chickpeas was 16.5 million tonnes, led by India with 75% of the total, and Australia as a major secondary producer (table).

Cooked chickpeas are 60% water, 27%

Germination of chickpeas improves protein digestibility, although at a lower level than cooking. Germination degrades proteins to simple peptides, improving crude protein, nonprotein nitrogen, and crude fibre content. Germination decreases lysine, tryptophan, sulphur, and total aromatic amino acids, but most contents are still higher than proposed by the FAO/WHO reference pattern.[48]

Oligosaccharides, such as stachyose and raffinose, are reduced in higher amounts during germination than during cooking. Minerals and B vitamins are retained more effectively during germination than with cooking. Phytic acids are reduced significantly, but trypsin inhibitor, tannin, and saponin reduction are less effective than cooking.^[48]

In a 2002 study comparing germination and cooking effects on chickpea nutritional values, all treatments of cooking (autoclaving, microwave cooking, and boiling) were found to improve protein digestibility. Essential amino acids were slightly increased by boiling and microwave cooking compared to autoclaving and germination. Losses of B-vitamins and minerals in chickpeas cooked by microwaving were smaller than in those cooked by boiling and autoclaving.^[48]

Chickpeas contain oligosaccharides (raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose) which are indigestible to humans but are fermented in the gut by bacteria, leading to flatulence in susceptible individuals.^[50] This can be prevented by skinning the husks from the chickpeas before serving.^[51]

In some parts of the world, young chickpea leaves are consumed as cooked green vegetables. Especially in malnourished populations, it can supplement important dietary nutrients because regions where chickpeas are consumed have sometimes been found to have populations lacking micronutrients.^[52] Chickpea leaves have a significantly higher mineral content than either cabbage leaves or spinach leaves.^[52] Environmental factors and nutrient availability could influence mineral concentrations in natural settings. Consumption of chickpea leaves may contribute nutrients to the diet.^[52]

The consumption of chickpeas is under preliminary research for the potential to improve nutrition and affect chronic diseases.^[49][53]

Agricultural yield for chickpeas is often based on

Perennial chickpeas are a fundamental source of nutrition in animal feed as they are high-energy and protein sources for livestock. Unlike other food crops, the perennial chickpea can change its nutritional content in response to heat cultivation. Treating the chickpea with a constant heat source increases its protein content almost threefold.[55] Consequently, the impact of heat cultivation affects the protein content of the chickpea itself and the ecosystem it supports. Increasing the height and size of chickpea plants involves using macronutrient fertilization with varying doses of inorganic phosphorus and nitrogen.^[56]

The level of phosphorus that a chickpea seed is exposed to during its lifecycle has a positive correlation relative to the height of the plant at full maturity.^[56] Increasing the levels of inorganic phosphorus at all doses incrementally increases the height of the chickpea plant. Thus, the seasonal changes in phosphorus soil content, as well as periods of drought that are known to be a native characteristic of the dry Middle-Eastern region where the chickpea is most commonly cultivated, have a strong effect on the growth of the plant itself. Plant yield is also affected by a combination of phosphorus nutrition and water supply, resulting in a 12% increase in crop yield.^[56]

Nitrogen nutrition is another factor that affects the yield of Cicer arietinum, although the application differs from other perennial crops regarding the levels administered to the plant. High doses of nitrogen inhibit the yield of the chickpea plant.^[57] Drought stress is a likely factor that inhibits nitrogen uptake and subsequent fixation in the roots of Cicer arietinum. The perennial chickpea's growth depends on the balance between nitrogen fixation and assimilation, which is also characteristic of many other agricultural plant types. The influence of drought stress, sowing date, and mineral nitrogen supply affects the plant's yield and size, with trials showing that Cicer arietinum differed from other plant species in its capacity to assimilate mineral nitrogen supply from the soil during drought stress.^[57] Additional minerals and micronutrients make the absorption process of nitrogen and phosphorus more available. Inorganic phosphate ions are generally attracted towards charged minerals such as iron and aluminium oxides.^[58]

Additionally, growth and yield are also limited by the

From 1978 until 1995, the worldwide number of pathogens increased from 49 to 172, of which 35 were recorded in India. These pathogens originate from groups of bacteria, fungi, viruses, mycoplasma, and nematodes and have high genotypic variation. The most widely distributed pathogens are

Ascochyta rabiei (35 countries), Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris (32 countries) Uromyces ciceris-arietini (25 countries), bean leafroll virus (23 countries), and Macrophomina phaseolina (21 countries).^[62] Ascochyta disease emergence is favoured by wet weather; spores are carried to new plants by wind and water splash.^[63]

The stagnation of yield improvement over the last decades is linked to the susceptibility to pathogens.[64] Research for yield improvement, such as an attempt to increase yield from 0.8 to 2.0 metric tons per hectare (0.32 to 0.80 long ton/acre; 0.36 to 0.89 short ton/acre) by breeding cold-resistant varieties, is always linked with pathogen-resistance breeding as pathogens such as Ascochyta rabiei and F. o. f.sp. ciceris flourish in conditions such as cold temperature. Research started selecting favourable genes for pathogen resistance and other traits through marker-assisted selection. This method is a promising sign for the future to achieve significant yield improvements.^[65]

Gallery

• 
  Cicers farm
• 
  Lime green chickpeas
• 
  Black chickpeas

See also

• Chickpeas in Nepal

References

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External links

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• India Pulses and Grains Association (Archived 2020-02-07 at the Wayback Machine)