CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Araucaria angustifolia and Araucaria araucana are coniferous trees with large and nutritious seeds. The structure and nutritional properties of the proteins of these seeds were studied. About 70% of the proteins of the gametophyte are soluble in distilled water, although their solubility decreased drastically in raw seed flour. The protein components of both araucaria seeds are very similar; the main protein species have molecular weights of 14, 24 and 30 kDa. These proteins have a high nutritional quality, being triptophan the first limiting amino acid.