Nutritional, biochemical and health properties of Locust beans and its applications in the food industry: a review

Abstract

The Locust Bean (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is an ancient Mediterranean fruit that is used to make locust bean gum from seeds, which is a popular ingredient in many foods today. Locust Bean fruit and Gum are rich in bioactive compounds that can be helpful in the treatment of conditions involving the digestive system, as well as cancer, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. The locust bean gum is a polysaccharide extracted from the endosperm of the locust bean seed through different thermomechanical or chemical processes. It is an approved food additive with the European number E410 and a number of different food uses. It is a galactomannan and it is frequently used in dairy products for its water-binding and thickening properties to improve their rheological properties. This review aims to study the functional, and nutritional characteristics of Locust Bean Gum, the extraction of Locust Bean Gum, as well as its applications in the food sector and its impacts on dairy product processing.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-023-05765-5.

Keywords: Food applications; Locust bean gum; Physiochemical; Polysaccharides; Processing.

Fig. 1

The major parts of Locust Bean tree: the pulp" mature pods", and seeds (Image taken from Tyre, Lebanon 2022)

Fig. 2

Traditional procedure of Locust Bean molasses production Modified from (Tounsi et al. 2017)

Fig. 3

The main processes and products obtained from the Locust Bean fruit, Modified from (Brassesco et al. 2021). LBG: Locust Bean Gum

Fig. 4

Schematic representation of different Locust Bean Gum extraction techniques (Modified from Dakia et al. 2008 and Kıvrak et al. 2015)

Fig. 5

Locust Bean seeds transformations during processing (Image taken by Kamar et al. 2022)