Biological testing of the protein quality of selected legume cultivars [cowpea, mungbean, chickpea, pigeon pea, navy bean, rice bean, winged bean; Philippines]

Biological testing of the protein quality of selected legume cultivars [cowpea, mungbean, chickpea, pigeon pea, navy bean, rice bean, winged bean; Philippines]

1984

A:PS

One hundred and ninety-six male weanling rats (Sprague-Dawley strain) were randomly alloted to twenty-four legume-based diets formulated to contain 10% protein and skim milk as reference protein. The biological indices used were protein efficiency ratio (PER), biological value (BV), digestibility index (DI) and net protein utilization (NPU). Mungbean is comparable to skim milk and chick pea based on BV (82 to 88) and NPU (62 to 70), although less digestible. The DI (50 to 74) and NPU (38 to 65) values for cowpea, winged bean and rice bean diets were significantly higher than those for pigeon pea (38 and 31 for DI and NPU, respectively) and navy bean (20 to 37 and 7 to 21 for DI and NPU, respectively), but significantly lower than those for mungbean diet (75 to 79 and 62 to 70 for DI and NPU, respectively). Poor growth performance of rats and low PER, BV, DI and NPU values could be attributed to the low levels of essential amino acids especially methionine (1.00 to 1.51 g aa/16 g N) and tryptophan (0.64 to 1.02 g aa/16 g N) in legume-based diets. [AS]

v.67(2):209-221, PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURIST

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