[Comparative digestive and metabolic utilization of beans, lentils and chick peas in the rat]

Faba bean, lentil or chick-pea raw seeds were used as the only protein food in the rat. The balanced diet was designed to suit growth requirements. Nitrogen apparent digestibility coefficient (CUDa) was 72% in the faba bean, 75% in the lentil, 76% in the chick-pea groups respectively, but the CUDa of some essential amino acids were much lower: 52-51-71% for methionine, 60-39-78% for cystine, 73-71-75% for valine, while arginine CUDa values (87-87-82) were higher than all other AA CUDa values. Growth rate (8.9-6.7-9.1 g/d) and food intake index (2.1-2.5-2.2) were satisfactory. Blood and muscle free amino acid concentrations related to digestible intake showed that methionine from the 3 legumes, threonine from chick-pea, arginine and lysine from faba bean were not fully available.