Influence of soaking and boiling on flavonoids and saponins of nine desi chickpea cultivars with potential antiproliferative effects

Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L) is an important pulse crop and a good source of nutrients and dietary phytochemicals. The objective was to explore the influence of processing on flavonoids and saponins of nine pigmented (red, black, green, brown and cream seed coat) Desi chickpea seeds. Besides, the potential antiproliferative effects of flavonoids and saponins retained in the soaked/cooked seeds against human Caco-2, HT-29 and MCF7 cancer cell lines were assessed. The phytochemicals were identified by HPLC-IT-MS and quantified by HPLC-DAD-ELSD. In chickpea seeds, eleven compounds were identified belonging to myricetin glucosides, soyasaponin βg and biochanin-A glucosides. The total average content of saponins, isoflavones and flavonols in raw chickpeas were 453–2072 µg/g, 1–38 µg/g, and 7–66 µg/g, respectively. The thermal processing caused a significant reduction of flavonoids but only the control Kabuli chickpea lose saponins. The phytochemicals in Desi chickpeas showed better antiproliferative effects against Caco-2, HT29 and MCF7 cancer cells than the Kabuli counterpart. Thus, the Desi chickpea seeds seem to be good candidates for further studies for the development of functional ingredients.