Pulses are edible seeds of plants belonging to the legume family, which are of great importance for human and animal nutrition. In this study, several nutrients, antinutrients and bioactive compounds were quantified in the seeds of ten pulses, i.e., common and runner beans, field peas, lupins (white, blue and yellow), faba beans, lentils (brown and red) and chickpeas. Homogenised, air-dried seed samples were analysed for various parameters: protein (18.0–43.1%), fat (0.6–18.5%) and phytic acid content (507–2566 mg/100 g dry weight (DW)), phenolic profile (27 phenolic compounds in total) and multi-mineral composition. The analysed phenolic compounds mainly belong to phenolic acids (hydroxybenzoic acids and hydroxycinnamic acids) and/or flavonoids (flavones, flavonols and flavanols). Total phenolic content (TPC) ranged from 719 μg/g DW in chickpeas to 5012 μg/g DW in common beans. A total of ten elements belonging to macro- (Mg, P, S, K and Ca) and micro-minerals (Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Mo) were determined. Using cluster analysis, pulses were divided into three groups according to the parameters studied: 1. common and runner bean; 2. field pea, white and blue lupin, faba bean, red and brown lentil and chickpea; and 3. yellow lupin. The most varying phytochemicals in terms of their content in the analysed pulses were phytic acid, quinic acid, catechin and TPC. A perfect positive significant Pearson correlation (1.00) was observed for six pairs of variables within the group of phenolic compounds.

Genetic resources comprised of 953 accessions of common (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) and 47 accessions of runner (Phaseolus coccineusL.) bean from the national Slovene gene bank were characterized using fourteen morphological seed descriptors. Seeds of each accession were evaluated for six quantitative characteristics: seed length, seed thickness, seed width, seed length/width ratio, seed width/thickness ratio, and 100 or 10 seed weight. Furthermore, seeds were evaluated using eight qualitative characteristics: seed colour; number of seed colours; primary/main seed colour; predominant secondary seed colour; distribution of secondary seed colour; seed veining; seed shape; and seed colour (primary and secondary) and coat pattern. For each, common, and runner bean collection, first four components within principal component analysis explained 75.03% and 80.16% of morphological variability, respectively. Regarding Ward’s method and squared Euclidian distance, three clusters with the most distinct characteristics were established for each species. The results of morphological seed characterization indicate the origin (Andean, Mesoamerican, putative hybrids between gene pools) and domestication pathways of common and runner bean. This is the first study describing morphological seed characteristics of the entire common and runner bean germplasm conserved in one of the Central European bean collections. The results obtained in this study are serving as the useful information on genetic diversity of common and runner bean accessions at the Slovene gene bank, which could be used for development of new bean varieties for studied seed characteristics.

Root-knot nematodes are considered the most important group of plant-parasitic nematodes due to their wide range of plant hosts and subsequent role in yield losses in agricultural production systems. Chemical nematicides are the primary control method, but ecotoxicity issues with some compounds has led to their phasing-out and consequential development of new control strategies, including biological control. We evaluated the nematicidal activity of Bacillus firmus I-1582 in pot and microplot experiments against Meloidogyne luci. I-1582 reduced nematode counts by 51% and 53% compared to the untreated control in pot and microplot experiments, respectively. I-1582 presence in the rhizosphere had concurrent nematicidal and plant growth-promoting effects, measured using plant morphology, relative chlorophyll content, elemental composition and hyperspectral imaging. Hyperspectral imaging in the 400–2500 nm spectral range and supervised classification using partial least squares support vector machines successfully differentiated B. firmus-treated and untreated plants, with 97.4% and 96.3% accuracy in pot and microplot experiments, respectively. Visible and shortwave infrared spectral regions associated with chlorophyll, N–H and C–N stretches in proteins were most relevant for treatment discrimination. This study shows the ability of hyperspectral imaging to rapidly assess the success of biological measures for pest control.