Andean lupin
organism / organism-lupinus-mutabilis
アンデスルピナス / Lupinus mutabilis
Andean lupin is a legume crop native to the Andes. Its seeds are high in protein but contain bitter quinolizidine alkaloids; they are traditionally debittered with water before eating.
Photographs (captions in Japanese)
Cultivated plants of Andean lupin (Lupinus mutabilis, tarwi). In a field near Puno, Peru, flower spikes with blue-violet and white flowers and palmate compound leaves are shown.
Shown: Lupinus mutabilisPart / state: Cultivated plants in the flowering period (blue-violet and white flower spikes, palmate compound leaves)
Photo: Michael Hermann / CC BY-SA 4.0 / original image / ledger's original image
Scope and provenance of the photo
Identification: Identified as labelled in the source. The source describes it as a cultivated plant (grown for its edible seeds) near Puno, Peru, at an altitude of about 3800 m. Re-identification by a specialist has not been done.
Image shown: The 1920 px version from Wikimedia Commons. No cropping or color changes by NIGAMI LAB. For display, a WebP capped at 1200 px wide is served; the ledger's original image can be checked from the link above.
On this page (7 sections)
Reading the bitterness
Andean lupin (Lupinus mutabilis) is a legume crop native to the South American Andes. Its seeds are high in protein but contain bitter quinolizidine alkaloids (QA), so they have traditionally been soaked in water to remove bitterness before eating. Total QA content is described as below 500 mg/kg in sweet varieties and above 10,000 mg/kg in bitter varieties; 1 report of 31,000 mg/kg for L. mutabilis has been identified. The assessment itself explicitly notes that this value comes from that 1 report only and is not corroborated by multiple studies.
The alkaloid composition of the seeds is not uniform either. A public assessment summarizes lupanine as accounting for 47–58% of the quinolizidine alkaloids in L. mutabilis, followed by sparteine at 7.4–16% and 13α-hydroxylupanine at 7–15%. The cultivars in the underlying data are not specified, so it is not known which cultivars this composition represents.
Sources for this overview
Checked for this overview: Checked the QA content categories for sweet and bitter varieties and the value of 31,000mg/kg. / Checked the composition figures in the main text, including 47-58% for lupanine.
Lupinus mutabilis: Composition, Uses, Toxicology, and Debittering
Checked for this overview: Checked the statement that lupins contain bitter alkaloids.
Follow the connections
Andean lupin →contains→ quinolizidine alkaloids →— sensory attribute→ bitterness
lupanine →is the major quinolizidine …→ Andean lupin
Measured values (1)
| Kind | Compound | Target | Value | Conditions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| concentration | quinolizidine alkaloids | Andean lupin | 31000 mg/kg | Lupinus mutabilis seeds (variety not stated). (EFSA explicitly states that there is only one report of total QA.) | EFSA CONTAM Panel, 2019 |
Values are the reported values of each source (with units and conditions). Thresholds and EC50 depend on the panel and method; they are not single true values.
Hypotheses and recipe candidates for this entry are on the Japanese page.
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Composition and content (3)
Scope: Seeds
Note: The total QA figure of 31,000 mg/kg for L. mutabilis is a single report (EFSA states explicitly: "Only one paper reporting the total amount of QAs was identified").
Show data
organism-lupinus-mutabilis —contains→ compound-class-quinolizidine-alkaloidsScope: EFSA 2019's table of QA composition by species
Show data
compound-lupanine —is_the_major_quinolizidine_alkaloid_of→ organism-lupinus-mutabilisScope: Lupinus mutabilis
Note: An example of debittering through breeding, in contrast to the existing process-lupin-debittering (traditional debittering by water treatment). However, whether 'Inti' has become widely commercially adopted cannot be confirmed from this material.
Show data
organism-lupinus-mutabilis —has_cultivar→ (the claim sentence above)