The proximate composition of peas is similar to that of other grain legumes. The seeds contain high levels of protein and digestible carbohydrates and low concentrations of fibre and fat. Peas contain a number of antinutritive factors which may be controlled by suitable processing and breeding programmes. Antinutritive factors are less important in human diets as cooking and processing are normally carried out prior to consumption. Peas have a potential as a protein concentrate and could be processed to produce high protein containing-products.

Although the origin of the pea (Pisum spp.) is obscure it was clearly among the earliest of cultivated plants. Archaeological evidence indicates that it was well under cultivation in the Near Eastern and Greek Neolithic settlements as early as 6000 BC (Zohary and Hopf 1973). The samples of seed collected from these Neolithic sites are well preserved and show the characteristic smooth seed coats of a cultivated crop, in contrast wild peas have a rough or granular seed surface (Zohary and Hopf 1973). Whether the crop was simply gathered or actually cultivated, peas offered a number of advantages to early man. The protein-and carbohydrate-rich seeds were easily harvested, transported and stored. It is also possible that the pea commended itself to cultivation because it lacked any bitter or poisonous characteristics and was more digestible than most other legume seeds. The introduction of peas into primitive agriculture must have taken place rapidly as, alongside cereals, they had become widely used by Greek and Roman times (Cole 1961). The pea was called Pisos by the Greeks and Pisum by the Romans. When the plant passed on to the English, it became “Peason”. then “Pease” or Peasse “, and finally" Pea “. It became a prominent crop in middle and northern Europe where the climate favoured its cultivation. In the Dark and Middle Ages it was grown almost as commonly as any of the cereals (Marx 1977).