Amino acid profile of raw and locally processed seeds of Prosopis africana and Ricinus communis: potential antidotes to protein malnutrition

Abstract

Background: Increasing incidence of malnutrition occasioned by high incidence of hunger, worsening food situation in the world, insufficient availability and high cost of animal protein sources, has necessitated extensive research into and use of alternative plant protein sources especially underexploited leguminous seeds.Methods: Flours from raw, boiled and fermented seeds of Prosopis africana and Ricinus communis were evaluated for crude protein and amino acid (AA) profiles, and their protein qualities determined. Results: Fermentation improved the protein contents of raw seeds of P. africana and R. communis by 18.70% and 3.95% respectively. In the raw and fermented P. africana seeds, glutamate at 132.60 ± 1.30 and 182.70 ± 3.02 mg/g crude protein (mg/gcp) was the most abundant amino acid (AA), while leucine (62.80 ± 0.60 and 79.50 ± 2.01 mg/gcp) was the most concentrated essential amino acid (EAA). Aspartate (151.90 ± 2.01 and 170.10 ± 2.00 mg/gcp) and arginine (72.80 ± 2.01 and 78.60 ± 2.00 mg/gcp) were the most concentrated and abundant non-essential amino acid (NEAA) and EAA in the raw and fermented samples of R. communis respectively. The total AA concentrations (mg/gcp) of raw and fermented P. africana were 733.00 and 962.60 respectively, while those of R. communis were 823.50 and 894.10 respectively. The total EAA contents (mg/gcp) for P. africana were 311.00 (raw) and 404.50 (fermented), and for R. communis; 401.10 (raw) and 430.30 (fermented). Threonine was the limiting EAA in raw and fermented P. africana, whereas lysine was the limiting EAA in R. communis raw sample. Fermentation significantly (p<0.05) increased the individual AA compositions of P. africana and R. communis by 94% and 53% respectively, while boiling reduced these parameters significantly (p<0.05) by 47% and 82% respectively.Conclusion: P. africana and R. communis seeds are potentially important plant sources of protein and essential amino acids, and so could be of great importance in combating malnutrition and food security problems generally.Key words: Amino acid score; condiments; crude protein; fermentation; legumes; nutrition

Chemical and nutritional characterization of raw and thermal-treated flours of Mesquite (Prosopis laevigata) pods and their residual brans

“…Marangoni and Alli (1988) and Felker et al (2013) reported sulfur-containing amino acids as the limiting amino acids in pods of Prosopis species, without differencing seed from mesocarp. Thr was the limiting amino acid in seed of P. Africana (Igwe et al, 2012). Barba de la Rosa et al (2006) using a single method for aminoacid analysis, reported a good balance of essential amino acids in P. laevigata whole pod flour, with limited content of sulfurcontaining amino acids and particularly high values of Trp, an amino-acid profile that contrast with the results presented here for the same species, which could be explained by differences in the used methodology.…”

“…The protein MF content reported here for P. laevigata (105 g/kg), is slightly higher than previous reported values for P. alba (Felker et al, 2003), P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988) and P. pallida (Felker et al, 2003) with 80, 70, and 100 g/kg, respectively. The protein content reported here for SF of P. laevigata (310 g/kg) is higher than previously reported values for P. Africana (Igwe et al, 2012) and similar to P. alba (Sciammaro et al, 2016), P. juliflora (Marangoni & Alli, 1988) and P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988). Similar whole pod flours (mesocarp-SF) protein content have been reported for P. chilensis (Astudillo et al, 2000), P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988), and P. tamarugo (Astudillo et al, 2000).…”

“…Pods and pods fractions of Prosopis species have been described in their nutritional profile: P. africana (Igwe, Ojiako, Anugweje, Nwaogu, & Ujowundu, 2012), P. alba (Cattaneo et al, 2016;Felker, Grados, Cruz, & Prokopiuk, 2003;Sciammaro, Ferrero, & Puppo, 2016), P. chilensis (Astudillo, Schmeda-Hirschmann, Herrera, & Cortes, 2000), P. glandulosa (Harden & Zolfaghari, 1988), P juliflora (Marangoni & Alli, 1988), P. laevigata (Barba de la Rosa, Frias-Hernandez, Olalde-Portugal, & Gonzalez-Castañeda, 2006; Gallegos-Infante, Rocha-Guzman, Gonzalez-Laredo, & Garcia-Casas, 2013), P. nigra (Felker et al, 2003), P. ruscifolia (Bernardi, Sanchez, Freyre, & Osella, 2010), and P. tamarugo (Astudillo et al, 2000); active compounds content and in vitro biological activity: P. alba (Cardozo et al, 2010;Cattaneo et al, 2016;Perez et al, 2014;Sciammaro et al, 2016), P. chilensis (Astudillo et al, 2000;Briones-Labarca, Muñoz, & Maureira, 2011;Schmeda-Hirschmann et al, 2015), P. laevigata (Gallegos-Infante et al, 2013), P. nigra (Cardozo et al, 2010;Perez et al, 2014), P. ruscifolia (Bernardi et al, 2010), and P. tamarugo (Astudillo et al, 2000); and in vivo biological activity: P. glandulosa (George, Lochner, & Huisamen, 2011;Huisamen, George, Dietrich, & Genade, 2013). Nutritionally, pods of Prosopis species are gluten free (Bernardi et al, 2010;Felker et al, 2013) and rich in good quality protein (Barba de la Rosa et al, 2006) or limited in sulfur amino acids (Felker & Bandurski, 1977;Fe...…”

Evaluation of nutritional, anti-nutritional and some biochemical studies on Pleurotus squarrosulus (Mont.) singer using rats

“…This compares favorably with 10% desired energy requirement from proteins as noted by Wardlaw and Kessel (2002). The Leucine/IsoIeucine ratio (Table 5) of amino acid constituent of P. squarrosulus could be indication of metabolic antagonism especially with tryptophan and niacin metabolism due to low leucine content (Igwe et al, 2012). Total basic amino acids/Total acidic amino acids ratio of the studied sample is 0.33, indicating more acidic amino acids than the basic amino acids.…”

Nutritional Characterization of Combretum dolichopentalum Leaves

“…The less than one (˂1) value calculated for TBAA/TAAA ratio (Table 5) confirms the acidic amino acids content of C. dolichopentalum and thus could be acidic at physiological pH. This does not differ from P. Africana seeds [29,30]. TSAA showed the lowest value in amino acid groupings (Table 3).…”