Amino Acid Composition of two Fancy Meats (Liver and Heart) of African Giant Pouch Rat (Cricetomys gambianus)

An investigation into the concentrations of amino acids in the liver and heart of Cricetomys gambianus was carried out. The most abundant amino acid was Glu (12.9-13.0 g/100 g) and Leu was the most abundant essential amino acid (6.94-7.65 g/100 g). Whilst total amino acid content was 83.491.4 g/100 g crude protein, the total essential amino acid content was 38.6-42.2 g/100 g or 46.2-46.3% with His but 35.6-39.9 g/100 g crude protein or 42.5-43.7% without His. When compared with whole hen’s egg, Ser was the limiting amino acid in the two samples (0.38-0.47) whereas it was 1.12 (Lys) in liver and 1.26 (His) in heart. In comparison with pre-school child requirement, Leu (1.16) was limiting in liver and Thr (0.78) was limiting in heart. In comparison with provisional amino acid scoring pattern: Met+ Cys (0.95) was limiting in liver but Thr (0.66) was limiting in heart. The predicted protein efficiency ratio (P-PER) was 2.32-2.62 whereas the essential amino acid index was 1.20-1.31. Significant differences existed between the liver and the heart in their amino acid compositions and their comparisons with the whole hen’s egg at r = 0.05.