Nutritional Utilization of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) Meal and Proteins by the Rat as Compared to Lactalbumin and Soybean

Summary

The aim of the present work was to study the nutritional utilization by rats of diets containing chickpea or chickpea proteins purified from meal. Diets were formulated to contain the same amount of digestible energy (15.5 kJ/g) and protein (100 g/kg), and were supplemented with appropriate amounts of synthetic amino acids to target values. A lactalbumin-based diet was used as the control, and another diet containing defatted soybean as protein source was also included for practical comparisons. Feed intake was not affected by the inclusion of chickpea meal in the diet, but was lower in rats fed diets containing purified chickpea globulins. Performance (weight gains, gain:feed ratios) of rats fed chickpea meal or its globulins was lower than that of lactalbumin and soybean. Fecal and urinary N were increased in soybean and chickpea groups compared to lactalbumin. True N retention of rats fed diets containing lactalbumin (0.97) was higher than that of rats fed diets containing soybean, chickpea meal or its globulins (0.83–0.87). The plasma urea concentration of animals fed soybean- or chickpea-based diets increased in comparison with the lactalbumin group. The inclusion of chickpea insoluble residue in the control diet had no adverse effects on performance or N utilization. It is concluded that the reasons for the low nutritional value of chickpeas for growing animals are probably related mainly to the chemical structure of the globulin proteins and their adverse effects on growth and N metabolism.