PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTATION OF NAVY BEANS WITH SESAME

Feeding experiments with weanling rats showed that the protein of Navy beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and sesame (Sesamun indicum) are mutually supplementary. Standard diets containing as the sole source of protein: beans (B); sesame (S); and mixtures of 87.5% B protein with 12.5% S protein, 75% B protein with 25% S protein, and 50% B protein with 50% S protein, resulted in the following protein efficiency ratios (PER): 1.56, 1.19, 1.79, 2.26 and 2.30, respectively, compared to 2.50 for casein. The net protein ratios (NPR) correlated almost perfectly (r = 0.99) with PER. The amino acid scores by the method A/E correlated highly with both PER and NPR (r = 0.82 and 0.81, respectively). The amino acid scores by the method A/T correlated even better with PER and NPR (r = 0.96 and 0.97, respectively). Copyright © 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved