The influence of malting for 24 and 48 h on selected components was studied in soya bean, black bean, chick pea and barley. Proximate composition, calcium, iron zinc, α-galactosides including ciceritol, sucrose, phytic acid, myo-inositols phosphate and lectins were determined. The malting conditions were adequate to maintain the overall proximate composition and minerals. Galactosides decreased rapidly in all samples. Two days malting promoted a decrease of 91 and 84% in black bean and barley, respectively, while 44% was observed in the soya bean and only 34% in chickpea with a loss of 43% of ciceritol. The highest total levels of inositol phosphates were found in soya bean and black bean (478 and 450 mg%, respectively). IP6 and IP5 were not intensively affected by malting with the higher decrease of 25% observed in black bean. Lectin was detected in significant amounts only in soya bean and black bean and malting promoted 76% loss after 48 h in the black bean samples. The results indicated that short time malting may be useful to improve nutritional characteristics of the samples and that within the legume seeds studied black bean showed better results. Copyright (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.