Characterisation of the genetic variation in nutritional composition of bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.)

Underutilised crops have the potential to play an increasing role in food systems and human diet. However, progress is limited, in part due to the scarcity of data reflecting the range of nutritional variation compared with major crops, and limited systematic effort to collate and analyse compositional data. The research in this thesis sought to develop a systematic workflow to improve the knowledge base for underutilised crops in relation to food and nutrition.
Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) was adopted as a use-case, with comparative analysis of four taxonomically related major crops: soybean, chickpea, cowpea and mungbean.