Economic Importance of Fabaceae: Uses, Properties and Sample Questions

Fabaceae also known as Leguminosae is a large and economically important part of the flowering plants family. It is also quite commonly called the part of the legume, pea, or bean family. It is also very medicinally important.The Fabaceae family is extensively widespread, being most prevalent in the American and African tropical rainforests and dry woodlands. It includes large trees as well as tiny annual herbs and has a wide variety of growth forms. However, they are most famous for their variety of uses in horticulture, agriculture, medical field, industrial field, etc. The oil and fats it contains have diverse and abundant uses. 

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Economic Importance of Fabaceae

Food

Humans, cattle, as well as wild animals, all benefit from abundant vegetable protein sources provided by the Fabaceae family plants. Some forage plants or crops are also cultivated as livestock feed. The plants with edible seeds are Chickpea, Garden pea, Peanut, Lentil, etc. Pulses are the main source of food yielded by the Fabaceae family.

• Pulses - Gram, Moong, Soya Bean, Sem, Arhar, Lentil, Masur, green gram, pea, chickpea, black gram, and pigeon pea are some of the pulses yielded by the Fabaceae family plants.
• Edible Oil - Oil is extracted from soya beans and groundnuts, which are then utilized in cooking.

Fabaceae Plants

Agriculture

• The Fabaceae family is economically feasible for farmers due to its capacity to fix nitrogen. It ultimately helps in money-saving because of low expenditure on fertilizer purchase.
• Legumes are also used by farmers in crop rotation to restore nitrogen-depleted soil.
• This extra nitrogen results in having relatively high protein seeds and leaves than non-legume seeds and components.
• Hydraulic lift is a basic feature of several legume species, making them excellent for intercropping.

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Dye

• The Fabaceae family has dye-yielding plants. A wide variety of dyes and colors can be extracted from different legume plants.
• Some dye plants are heartwood or logwood (produce red & purple dyes), true indigo plant (produces indigo dye), and madras thorn (produces yellow dye), etc. The True indigo plant is native to Asia.

Ornamental Uses of Fabaceae

• For ages, legumes have been utilized as attractive plants throughout the world, frequently in the design and landscaping of small gardens to big parks.
• Ornamental trees and shrubs include the golden chain tree, Black Locust, Honey Locust, Acacia, Shameplant, and Delonix.

Timber

• Numerous legume species including Acacia species, Dalbergia species, and Moreton Bay Chestnut are grown for timber production across the world.
• Sheesham, Ironwood, Siris, and Australian blackwood, and Indian blackwood are all examples of the timber-yielding Fabaceae species.

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Medical Properties of Fabaceae

• The legume family plants have relevant medical properties.
• Some other medically significant plants are candle tree or Senna Alata (used to treat skin conditions, digestive aid), Australian chestnut (researched for an AIDS vaccine), and licorice or Mulethi (used as a cough syrup), and rosary peas.
• Rosary pea’s leaves are believed to remove vitiligo or leucoderma patches.

Economic Importance of Fabaceae

Things to Remember

• Papilionoideae was the previous name for this family.
• It is the third-largest flowering plant family in the number of species.
• The Fabaceae family is found everywhere except Antarctica and the high arctic.
• The legumes are used as natural fertilizers.
• Fabaceae is a subfamily of the Leguminosae family.

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