Beans

Bean, common name widely applied to many plants of the legume family. The seeds and pods of these plants are used for food and forage. The seeds themselves are also called beans and are valuable as food because of their high protein content.

The term bean is also applied to plants of other families, such as the Indian bean, which is a North American species, and the sacred bean, or Indian lotus. The seeds or fruits of certain other plants, such as the coffee tree and the castor-oil plant (Castor Bean), are also called beans.

The broad bean, also called horsebean or Windsor bean, has been cultivated since prehistoric times and is still the most common bean in many parts of Europe. Various species are cultivated in the United States under the name of vetch. Most of the beans of the United States and the frijoles of Mexico belong to the same genus. The cowpea, asparagus bean, and hyacinth bean are also cultivated, particularly for forage. The soybean is the common bean of the Orient and has been more widely cultivated in the United States in recent years than have native varieties of bean. Most soybeans are grown today for their oil, which is used in industrial manufacturing and as fodder for livestock.

The wild bean of the United States is rarely cultivated. Hundreds of varieties of the common garden bean of the United States are cultivated. The young pods are called string, or snap, beans if green; they are called wax, or butter, beans if yellowish. The seeds of the older pods are known as shell beans. The small variety is often called navy bean and the large purplish variety, kidney bean.

The next most important species in the United States is the lima, or sugar, bean, regarded by some botanists as a variety of the civet bean. Because it is drought resistant, the tepary is cultivated in Mexico and in the southwestern United States.

The scarlet runner is often cultivated in Europe, as much for its attractive red flowers as for its edible beans.

For cultivating, beans are divided into two groups: pole beans, or vines requiring a pole for support; and bush beans, erect shrubs of low, spreading growth. Many of the species, notably the common garden bean of the United States, have varieties in both groups, and the groups overlap one another. Although some of the bean plants are perennials, most of the important cultivated species are annuals and are sown in rich, loose, warm soil after all danger of frost is past.

The principal disease affecting beans is a form of anthracnose caused by a fungus that attacks the stems, leaves, and pods of the bean. It is most visible on pods, in which it causes deep, dark pits. To prevent the disease, seeds are carefully selected, and care is taken not to spread the fungus from one plant to another during wet weather. A rust may defoliate bean plants. It first appears as small brown dots containing a brown powder, the spores of the fungus. Later the spots become larger and the spores black.

Scientific classification:

• Most beans belong to the subfamily Papilionoideae of the family Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae).
• The Indian bean is classified in the genus Catalpa.
• The broad bean is classified as Vicia faba. Vetch is classified in the genus Vicia.
• Most beans of the United States and the frijoles of Mexico are classified in the genus Phaseolus.
• Cowpeas and asparagus beans are classified in the genus Vigna.
• The hyacinth bean is classified as Lablab purpureus, the soybean as Glycine max, the wild bean of the United States as Phaseolus polystachios, and the common garden bean of the United States as Phaseolus vulgaris.
• The lima, or sugar, bean is generally classified as Phaseolus limensis, although it is regarded by some as a variety of the civet bean, classified as Phaseolus lunatus.
• The tepary is classified as Phaseolus acutifolius variety latifolius and the scarlet runner as Phaseolus coccineus.

"Bean" Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Bean, Kidney

Botanical: Phaceolus, Family: N.O. Leguminaceae

• Part Used: Dried ripe seeds.
• Habitat: Native of Indies; cultivated all over Europe; also said to be found in ancient tombs in Peru.

History:

This well-known plant has been cultivated from remote times. Because of the seeds close resemblance to the male testicle, the Egyptians made it an object of sacred worship and forbad its use as food.

In Italy at the present day beans are distributed among the poor, on the anniversary of a death.

The Jewish high priest is forbidden to eat beans on the day of Atonement.

Constituents:

Starch and starchy fibrous matter, phaseoline, extractive albumen mucilage, pectic acid, legumin fatty matter, earthy salts, uncrystallizable sugar, inosite, sulphur.

Medicinal Action and Uses:

When bruised and boiled with garlic Beans have cured otherwise uncurable coughs. If eaten raw they cause painful severe frontal headache, soreness and itching of the eyeball and pains in the epigastrium. The roots are dangerously narcotic.

Botanical.com: A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve

Gothic Gardening: Ye Olde Gothick Herball
Beans

Skinner comments on the bean's "ancient disrepute":

• If one reads the records truly, it begat insanity; it caused nightmare; to dream of it meant trouble; even ghosts fled shuddering from the smell of beans. The goddess Ceres, in doing good to men, set apart the bean as unworthy to be included in her gifts. The oracles would not eat it lest their vision be clouded. Hippocrates was that kind of physician who taught avoidance of it, lest it injure sight. Cicero would have none of it, because it corrupted the blood and inflamed the passions. The Roman priests would not even name it, as a thing unholy.

Scattering the flowers is thought to placate demons in many countries particularly in the Far East, being associated with death and the spirits of the dead. If one bean in a row should come up white instead of green, an English tradition associates this occurrence with death, and in the south west it was once believed that the third of May was the best time to plant kidney beans to ensure a successful crop.

Broad beans were thought to possess the soul of the dead, and when in flower it was believed that accidents were more likely to happen. If it was a leap year it was thought that the bean would grow upside-down. The shape of the bean was thought to be associated with death and ghosts. Scattering some around the outside of the house would stave off such attentions for 12 months.

Broad beans have also been associated with forecasting the future. A European belief was that three beans should be prepared in different ways to produce an outcome and then hidden on Midsummer Eve for the inquirer to find. The untouched bean indicated wealth, the half-peeled bean indicated a comfortable life, whilst the third fully peeled bean indicated poverty. The future was revealed by which bean was found first.

There is a legend concerning the philosopher/mathematician Pythagoras and a bean field. He believed that some souls, when leaving their bodies, became beans, so he refused to eat them. When there were enemies pursuing him, believing that he was a magician who needed to be put to death, he ran until he came to a bean field. Since he thought that the vines had souls hanging upon them which he did not want to trample, he instead stood still and allowed himself to be killed.

Gothic Gardening: Ye Olde Gothick Herbal