Common Bean

Phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant in the legume family, forming a green-leaved vine that produces beans inside pods. The common bean has a long history of cultivation; all wild members of the species have a climbing habit, but many cultivars are classified as either bush beans or climbing beans depending on their growth style, and in 2022, 28 million tonnes of dry common beans were produced worldwide, led by India with 23 percent of the total. Raw dry beans contain the toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, which is deactivated by boiling the beans for 30 minutes, and beyond the mature beans, the unripe green pods are also eaten as food, with the leaf occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder.