Determination of Amino Acid Content and Protein Quality of Complementary Food Produced from Locally Available Food Materials in Ondo State, Nigeria
- Author:
Ijarotimi OS & Olopade AJ
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:
Malaysian Journal of Nutrition
2009;15(1):87-95
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Protein-energy malnutrition is increasing among children in developing countries
due to low nutrient density of traditional complementary diets. Therefore, this study
aimed at determining the protein quality of a complementary food produced from
cooking banana fruits and bambara groundnut seeds. The cooking banana and bambara
groundnut seeds are locally available in both urban and villages markets in Nigeria.
The cooking bananas (CB) and bambara groundnut (BG) seeds were processed into
flours using standard procedure. The flours were mixed in a ratio of 70:30 (CBR1) and
60:40 (CBR2) of CB and BG respectively. A commercial weaning food (Nutrend) and
traditional weaning food, ogi(corn gruel), were used as control food samples. The
amino acid content and protein quality of the food samples were determined using
standard procedures. Glutamic acid (CBR1 = 4.353 g/100g, CBR2 = 5.804 g/100g) was the
highest while cysteine (CBR1= 0.252 g/100g; CBR2 = 0.336 g/100g) was the lowest of the
amino acids in the food samples. The amino acids composition increased as the
percentage supplementation of bambara ground nut increased in the mixtures. The
formulated food sample showed that CBR1 and CBR2 met 31.8% and 42.4% respectively
of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) fulfilment of essential amino acids. The
biological value (BV) of CBR2 (90.5%) was significantly high when compared with
CBR1 (75.9%) and ogi (52.4%). There was no significant difference between the BV of
CBR2with the BV of Nutrend (93.8%). Also, the net protein utilisation (NPU), total
digestibility (TD), protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed efficiency ratio (FER) and nitrogen
retention (NR) of CBR2 were within a similar range as those for Nutrend. As for the
haematological variables, there were no significant differences between those fed the
formulated diets and the control samples. The rate of weight gain for the animals fed
with CBR2 food sample was higher than those fed with CBR1 and ogi but were lower
than those for animals fed with Nutrend and casein. The study established that the
CBR2 samples contained the essential amino acids needed to support infant growth and
development.
- Full text:W020150713324145332195.pdf
