In the years following the second world war, the Spanish population turned to a crop named vetch, or vicia, to sustain themselves. This plant is a type of legume and can be used to make porridge, bread, flour and cereal.

Scientists from the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Seville have found that the plant is extremely rich in antioxidising polyphenols and has the potential to be a valuable healthfood.

The plant is in fact one of the very first domesticated crops, its cultivation having been traced back 9,500 years to the near east. Throughout the years, however, vetch's volatile properties meant that civilisations from Thailand to Egypt dropped the plant from their diets and took to cultivating a similar legume – the Broad Bean.

Toxic plant

There are a number of different varieties of vetch and many prove to be toxic to humans if they are consumed in large quantities. The toxins present in the seeds are mainly toxic amino acids that act as appetite suppressants and disrupt DNA functions, leading to failing health and possible paralysis known as neurolathyris.

Today, vetch is mostly cultivated for animal fodder in ruminant animals such as cattle, goats, sheep and giraffes, yet the latest findings from Spain indicate that it could make a comeback as a human superfood.

Javier Vioque from the research team was optimistic:

'These results can open the door to reconsider and revaluate these traditional growings in our community as a functional source of food or compounds with a high biological activity such as polyphenols. This could help to the revaluation of these growings, preservation of these species, protection of our floral richness and finally, the protection of biodiversity', Javier Vioque stated.