Botany
Sitaw is an herbaceous climbing
plant grown for it strikingly long edible pods. Leaves are trifoliate, green,
oval and smooth-edged. Flowers are purplish, about 1.5 long, giving
out green and slender yardlong pods.
Distribution
Cultivated.
Constituents
and properties
Uses
Culinary / Nutrition
• Pods are eaten
fresh or cooked, best when young and slender.
• Good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron,
phosphorus and potassium. A very good source of vitamin C, folate, magnesium
and manganese.
• 100 gm give 47 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 8 gms of carbohydrates
and 3 gm of protein.
Folkloric
• No reported
folkloric medicinal use in the Philippines.
Studies
• Antiproliferative
/ HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitory Activity:
A lectin with a unique hemagglutinating activity was isolated from Vigna
sesquipedalis cv ground bean. The ground bean lectin exhibited mitogenic
activity on murine splenocytes. The viability of hepatoma (HepG2), leukemia
(L1210 and M1) cells was reduced in the presence of ground bean lectin
while also exerting an inhibitory activity toward HIV-1 reverse transcriptase
IC50.
• Lipids / Phytoconstituents: Dried edible seeds of six varieties of V unguiculata and two of P vulgaris were analyzed for chemical constituents. The paper highlights safety and nutritive values. Some composition values for VU were: protein 20.5-31%, fat 1.14-3.03%, fiber 1.70 -4.5%, carbohydrate 56-65.7%. Potassium was the most abundant element inn the seeds
Availability
Seasonal produce.
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