Nutritional assessment of three Chinese indigenous legumes in growing rats

The nutritional values of three under-utilized Chinese indigenous legumes, Phaseolus angularis, Phaseolus calcaratus and Dolichos lablab, were evaluated by animal feeding. The nutritional values of the legumes were determined by comparing the food intake, protein intake, weight of carcass, protein efficiency ratio (PER), net protein ratio (NPR) and true protein digestibility (TD) of the legume-based diets with those of the casein control diet. Although the PER (ranged 2.41 to 4.11), NPR (ranged 6.15 to 6.74), and TD (ranged 70.1 to 75.8%) of these three legume seeds were significantly lower than those of the casein control, they were comparable to those of the other common known legumes. Besides, the growth performance were assessed by determining the weight of some organs in rats such as livers, kidneys, spleens and caecum. All three legumes had no effect on the weight of livers but their effect on the weight of kidneys, caecum and spleens varied.