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Among the Bauhinia species, B. cheilantha stands out for its seed protein content. However, there is no record of its nutritional value, being used in a nonsustainable way in the folk medicine and for large-scale extraction of timber. The aim of this study was to investigate the food potential of B. cheilantha seeds with emphasis on its protein quality to provide support for flora conservation and use as raw material or as prototype for the development of bioproducts with high added socioeconomic value. B. cheilantha seeds show high protein content (35.9%), reasonable essential amino acids profile, low levels of antinutritional compounds, and nutritional parameters comparable to those of legumes widely used such as soybean and cowpea. The heat treatment of the seeds as well as the protein extraction process (to obtain the protein concentrate) increased the acceptance of diets by about 100% when compared to that of raw Bc diet. These wild legume seeds can be promising alternative source of food to overcome the malnutrition problem faced by low income people adding socioeconomic value to the species.

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Soybean toxin (SBTX) is an antifungal protein from soybeans with broad inhibitory activity against the growth and filamentation of many fungi, including human and plant pathogenic species such as Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium herquei, Cercospora sojina and Cercospora kikuchii. Understanding the mechanism by which SBTX acts on fungi and yeasts may contribute to the design of novel antifungal drugs and/or the development of transgenic plants resistant to pathogens. To this end, the polymorphic yeast C. albicans was chosen as a model organism and changes in the gene expression profile of strain SC5314 upon exposure to SBTX were examined. Genes that were differentially regulated in the presence of SBTX were involved in glucose transport and starvation-associated stress responses as well as in the control of both the induction and repression of C. albicans hyphal formation. Transmission electron microscopy showed that C. albicans cells exposed to SBTX displayed severe signs of starvation and were heavily granulated. Our data were indicative of C. albicans cell starvation despite sufficient nutrient availability in the medium; therefore, it can be speculated that SBTX blocks nutrient uptake systems. Because neither the starvation signal nor the alkaline response pathway lead to the induction of hyphae, we hypothesise that conflicting signals are transmitted to the complex regulatory network controlling morphogenesis, eventually preventing the filamentation signal from reaching a significant threshold.