EVALUATION OF THE NUTRITIONAL-VALUE OF THE AMARANTH PLANT - I - RAW AND HEAT-TREATED GRAIN TESTED IN EXPERIMENTS ON GROWING RATS

Two experiments were carried out on rats to determine the nutritional value of raw and autoclaved amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) seeds. T he test groups of the first experiment were fed only ground amaranth s eed. The control group received pure maize meal. Both test groups show ed higher growth rate than the control group, due to the higher protei n content of amaranth. The final body weight df rats fed autoclaved am aranth seed significantly exceeded that of rats fed raw amaranth seed. The Net Protein Utilisation (NPU) index of raw and autoclaved amarant h was determined in the second experiment. The diets had 10% crude pro tein concentration and the only protein source was the meal of raw and autoclaved amaranth seed. It was found that the heat treatment of ama ranth increased the body weight gain of rats even when the animals con sumed diets containing only 10% crude protein. The feed consumption wa s also higher with the diet containing autoclaved seeds. Despite the f inding that there was no significant difference in the NPU index, data suggest the presence of a heat-labile antinutritive compound.