Assessment on Quality of Legumes Protein

Project Report from the year 2016 in the subject Health - Nutritional Science, Tribhuvan University (Central Department of Microbiology), language: English, abstract: Heat treatment of legumes can reduce antinutritional factors, and the optimization of protein digestibility, however, over- or under heating would damage the amino acids content of legumes. Therefore, adequate time is necessary. But direct analysis of both specifications is difficult in routine operations and is thus replaced with indirect tests such as urease assay index (UAI), protein solubility in 0.2% potassium hydroxide (PSKOH) and protein dispersibility index (PDI).

The UAI is useful to determine if the legumes have been heated enough to reduce the antinutritional factors, while PSKOH is a good protein solubility index (PSI) for determining over processing of legumes. The PDI is the best method of evaluating these legume ingredients for both under heating and overheating. So, combining the PDI test with the UAI and PSI could be useful for better monitoring of legumes quality.

In this research, five various legume samples commonly used in the household are placed in an oven at 120°C for up to 30 minutes; analysis was accomplished every 5 minutes. Adequate processing of black eye bean (20 minutes), chickpea (10-15 minutes), pea (10 minutes), soybean (15-20 minutes) and kidney bean (5 minutes) are determined combining UAI, PSI and PDI.