Essential amino-acids of some common tropical legumes and cereals.

In spite of numerous amino-acid analyses of foodstuffs recorded in recent years, there is little reliable information about the amounts of essential amino-acids in the legumes commonly consumed in tropical countries. Early studies (Jones, 1938) were directed to the preparation of the aand ,%globulins present in some legumes and to the determination of their lysine, tryptophan and cystine contents. More recently, figures for some of the essential acids in a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris eaten in Mexico have been published (Massieu, Guzman, Cravioto & Calvo, 1949), and several reports on the amino-acids in soya beans (Riesen, Clandinin, Elvehjem & Cravens, 1947; Kuiken & Lyman, 1949) have appeared. Again, whereas rice, wheat and maize have been the subject of numerous amino-acid analyses, the literature contains few or no data for the indigenous millets and sorghums of tropical countries. The present shortage of food, particularly of rice, in the rice-eating areas of the world has focused attention on such cereals and it therefore becomes of interest to know their contents of essential amino-acids. The present study was directed to ascertaining the supplementary value of legumes in diets composed largely of mixtures of cereals and vegetables; as a first step the determination of the eight amino-acids shown to be indispensable for man (Rose, 1949) was carried out on three legumes, lentil or Mysore dhall (Lens esculenta), green gram or mung (Phaseolus aueus Roxburgh) and black gram or ulundu (Phaseolus mungo Linn.), and on two cereals, finger millet or kurakkan (ragi, Eleusine coracana) and sorghum (Andropogon sorghum var. Kelo). Preliminary values for some of the essential acids in whole lentil and green gram (Baptist, 1952a) and finger millet (Baptist, 1950, 1951, 1952b) have been reported earlier; the present paper reports more detailed analytical findings.