This traditional Andean nitrogen-fixing legume has high-protein seeds
rendered bitter by quinolizidine alkaloids which were/are rinsed out
by soaking in running streams or standing po****er. Unknown in the
wild, they are cultivated in Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
Lupins in general grow well in acid soils. There are large-seeded
grain lupins from around the mediterranean, but adapted to winter
culture. Attempts to grow them during New England summers as a potato
alternate/cover crop were thwarted by this.
I hope Tarwi's short-day or day-neutral response will allow its growth
here beside potato, as it does in the Andes.
Tarwi reportedly slows potato cyst nematode, and its somewhat bitter
foliage retards grazers and browsers, so its used to hedge Andean
gardens. In Bhutanese trials, potatoes following tarwi crops yielded a
third more.
There are Tarwi varieties so high in oil (15-20%) as to allow
pressing. Around 1979 a commercial tarwi oil press was started in
Lima, Peru, although it later closed.
While most of the alkaloids are of the quinolizidine family,
ammodendrine, one of the frequently more teratogenic pyrrholizidine
alkaloids, has been isolated from Tarwi. This same alkaloid was
thought, but not proven, to cause bovine birth defects in calves born
of Texas cows grazing another lupine species.

Does anyone have info. on Andean Tarwi use, and any associated birth
defects?
Tempeh was made from Tarwi, and well-liked. Microbial digestion can
alter alkaloids. Does anyone have info. on digesting tarwi or
quinolizidine alkaloids?

Some alkaloids, like the flavor in hot pepper, are oil-soluable. Does
anyone have info. on tarwi oil alkaloid content?

Brian Cady

An article on tarwi has been weblished, at:
http://tinyurl.com/5a88v

Brian Cady