Lupinus, commonly known as
lupin or
lupine (North America), is a
genus of
flowering plants in the
legume family,
Fabaceae. The genus includes over 200
species, with
centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in
North Africa and the
Mediterranean. Seeds of various species of lupins have been used as a food for over 3000 years around the Mediterranean (Gladstones, 1970) and for as much as 6000 years in the Andean highlands (Uauy
et al., 1995), but they have never been accorded the same status as soybeans or dry peas and other pulse crops. The pearl lupin of the Andean highlands of South America,
Lupinus mutabilis, known locally as
tarwi or
chocho, was extensively cultivated, but there seems to have been no conscious genetic improvement other than to select for larger and water-permeable seeds. Users soaked the seed in running water to remove most of the bitter alkaloids and then cooked or toasted the seeds to make them edible (Hill, 1977; Aguilera and Truer, 1978), or else boiled and dried them to make
kirku (Uauy
et al., 1995). Spanish domination led to a change in the eating habits of the indigenous peoples, and only recently has interest in using lupins as a food been renewed (Hill, 1977).
