PROXIMATE COMPOSITION, AMINO-ACID AND VITAMIN CONTENTS OF MALTED CHICKPEA, MUNGBEAN AND THEIR SEED COATS

Chickpea and mungbean were germinated upto 46 h and the sprouts dried and brushed gently to detach the seed coats as well as the rootlets. T he decorticated and spilt cotyledons (malt) were separated from the se ed coats and the rootlets by aspiration. The yields of decorticated sp lit cotyledons from native chickpea and mungbean were 83.2 and 88.8% a nd those of 2 d malt were 80.4 and 78.0%, respectively. Malted chickpe a and mungbean contained 26.0 and 27.8% proteins, while the fat conten ts were 7.1 and 1.6%, respectively. The lysine content of both the nat ive as well as the malted chickpea and mungbean proteins was about 6.5 %. There were no appreciable differences in the other amino acid conte nts between the native and the malted legumes. Malting enhanced thiami ne, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid contents by about 15, 45, 30 and 130%, respectively. The protein contents of the seed coats from na tive and malted chickpea and mungbean were 9.0, 6.4% and 15.0, 22.2%, respectively. The seed coats from native as well as malted legumes wer e rich sources of essential amino acids. Sprouting of mungbean for 24 h and chickpea for 48 h is better to derive maximum nutritional benefi ts, without incurring high loss of the dry matter during malting.