EFFECT OF COOKING ON PROTEIN-QUALITY OF CHICKPEA (CICER-ARIETINUM) SEEDS

Amino acid composition and in vitro protein digestibility of cooked ch ickpea were determined and compared to raw chickpea seeds. Heat treatm ent produced a decrease of methionine, cysteine, lysine, arginine, tyr osine and leucine, the highest reductions being in cysteine (15%) and lysine (13.2%). Protein content declined by 3.4% and in vitro protein digestibility improved significantly from 71.8 to 83.5% after cooking. The decrease of lysine was higher in the cooked chickpea seeds than i n the heated protein fractions, globulins and albumins. The structural modification in globulins during heat treatment seems to be the reaso n for the increase in protein digestibility, although the activity of proteolytic inhibitors in the albumin fraction was not reduced. Result s suggest that appropriate heat treatment may improve the bioavailabil ity of chickpea proteins. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.