Nutrients, technological properties and genetic relationships among twenty cowpea landraces cultivated in West Africa

The genetic relationships among twenty phenotypically different cowpea landraces were unravelled regarding their suitability for preparing West African dishes. Amplified fragment length polymorphism classified unpigmented landraces (UPs) as highly similar (65%, one cluster), contrary to pigmented landraces (PLs, three clusters). UPs contained, in g kg-1 d.w., less fibre (24) and phenolics (3) than PLs (56 and 8, respectively) but had bigger seeds (200 g d.w. for 1000 seeds) and lower water absorption capacity at 30 °C (1049 g kg-1) than PLs (139 and 1184, respectively). In g kg-1 d.w., protein (255), ash (39), calcium (0.95), phytate (9.3), iron (0.07) and zinc (0.04) contents were similar. UPs genetic similarities corroborated with their chemical composition and functionality clustered by principal component analysis. Therefore, UPs are well interchangeable regarding chemical composition and suitability for boiled and fried cowpea dishes in contrast to PLs. PLs have potential for innovative product design owing to their functional properties.