Protein Quality Evaluation of Raw and Processed Seeds of Cadaba farinosa Forssk and Growth Performance of Albino Rats Fed with the Products

Cadaba farinosa Forssk is a wild shrub whose seeds are eaten as a famine food in North Eastern Nigeria when there is poor harvest of conventional crops. This research was carried out in order to evaluate the protein quality of the seeds and to carry out the growth performance of experimental animals fed on seeds processed by different methods. The processed methods include cooking, cooking with the addition of potash, fermentation and sprouting. PTH-Amino acid analyzer was used to determine the amino acid profile and milk reference protein was used for scoring the essential amino acids. The products were fed to weaning albino rats for 28 days growth performance studies. The determination of nitrogen content of the feed, faeces, urine and the carcass of the animals were carried out by Kjeldahl method. Protein quality evaluation of the processed products was carried out by calculating the Biological Value (BV), Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER), Net Protein Utilization (NPU) and The Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acids Score (PDCAAS). Results of Amino acid analysis showed that the sample cooked with addition of potash contain higher levels of amino acids. Glutamic acid was found to the most abundant amino acid with a value of 11.96 g/ 100 g and 13.96 g/ 100 g in the sprouted and raw seeds respectively. Chemical score of amino acids revealed higher score for protein of seeds cooked with addition of potash except tryptophan which was 219.29% for seeds cooked without potash. The highest PDCAAS (49.84%) was found in the diet cooked with potash, however, it showed lower biological value (95%) and protein efficiency ratio (0.32). The group fed with sprouted diet showed significant increase (P=.05) in body weight (52.13%). Though cooking with addition of potash showed higher distribution of amino acids, but sprouting and fermentation were more promising in terms of promoting the growth of the experimental animals.