Evaluation of the Nutritional Quality of the Grain Protein of New Amaranths Varieties

E.G. AGUILAR; G.J. ALBARRACIN; M.A. UÑATES; H.D. PIOLA; J.M. CAMIÑA; N. L. ESCUDERO

PLANT FOODS FOR HUMAN NUTRITION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2015 p. 21 - 26

0921-9668

The efforts for promoting the consumption of food from plant raw materials are growing. The amaranth seed is an important vegetable protein source, superior in content and quality to traditional cereals. In the central-west region of Argentina, new amaranth varieties have been obtained to optimize its agronomic traits and promote its use. In this work, the analysis of the wholemeal flour protein from seeds of two new varieties of Amaranthus cruentus var. Candil (CC) and Amaranthus hypochondriacus var. Dorado (HD), as well as from advanced lines of Amaranthus hypochondriacus x Amaranthus cruentus H17a (H17) and Amaranthus cruentus G6/17a  (CG6), was carried out in order to elucidate their nutritional contribution to human diet. The amino acids profile and chemical score (CS) were determined; furthermore the protein quality was evaluated in-vivo through the indexes: Net Protein Utilization (NPU), True digestibility (tD), biological value (BV) and protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS). In general, the amino acids values of the different varieties exceed the requirements established by the WHO/FAO/UNU; however valine was the limiting amino acid in all cases. The obtained ranges values were (%): NPU, 33.56 - 46.04; tD, 68.80-75.40, BV: 64.28-44.53 and PDCAAS 23.69 - 36.1. These results suggest that the new amaranth varieties flours can be adequate to human consumption and complementary protein source.