In vitro protein digestibility of khesari (lathyrus sativus), mashur (lens culinaris), and chhola (cicer arietinum)

Abstract

Pulse protein concentrates (PPCs) from Khesari (Lathyrus sativus), Mashur (Lens
culinaris), and Chhola (Cicer arietinum) were prepared by acid precipitation method.
The in vitro digestibility o f these proteins was determined. The mean protein
contents in Khesari (Lathyrus sativus), Mashur (Lens culinaris), and Chhola (Cicer
arietinum) were 29.93%, 23.23% and 20.40% respectively. It was found that the
amount of extracted PPC was highest in the case of Mashur (79.25%). However, total
protein extracted was the highest in case of Khesari, obviously due to highest
protein content of this seed. In vitro digestibility test with pepsin and pancreatin
showed that there was a significant variability among the PPCs. The most digestible
one was Mashur having 95.2% digestibility compared to reference protein casein
which was 98.5% digestible. The digestibility of Khesari and Chhola proteins was
93.4% and 89.8% respectively. It was found that heat had profound effect on
digestibility.