Abstract
Summary
An experiment was conducted with weanling mice to evaluate the protein quality of two samples of gourd seeds (Cucurbita digitata gray and C. foetidissima HBK). These materials were compared with whole egg protein. The gourd seeds were fed after fat extraction and after autoclaving (30 min at 120°) in addition to the feeding of the untreated ground material. Amino acid analyses showed that the C. digitata seeds were deficient in phenylalanine plus tyrosine, methionine, and threonine; while, the C. foetidissima seeds were deficient in methionine and threonine. Nitrogen retention data, liver transaminase activities and amino acid retention estimates all indicated that C. foetidissima seeds were superior to C. digitata in protein quality and that C. foetidissima seeds could be improved by autoclaving but was still of lower protein quality than whole egg.
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