Biological Evaluation of Thaumatococcus danielli Waste Protein

Abstract

Potential application of T. danielli waste as a raw material in livestock feed formulation had been suggested in earlier reports. In this study, the nutritional quality of protein in Thaumatococcus danielli seed and pericarp was evaluated using 16 male waster rats (20-25 g). The animals were randomly assigned to 4 groups and were maintained on four isocaloric diets, namely: casein, seed, pericarp and nitrogen-free diets, for 10 days. Daily weight gain and feed intake over the last 7 days were measured. Feacal, carcass, and feed nitrogen contents were also determined at the end of the feeding trial. Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER), Net Protein Retention (NPR), Biological Value (BV), Net Protein Utilization (NPU) and True Digestibility (TD), were thereafter calculated. Mean weight gain was significantly lower (p>0.05) in the rats fed the T. danielli pericarp feed (-2.60±0.80 g) than those placed on the seed (5.46±0.71 g). PER (-2.11±0.09); TD (59.37±1.72%); BV (16.96±1.61%); NPU (76.13±1.01%); and NPR (2.53±0.22) values were also significantly lower (p<0.01) in the pericarp than in the seed (2.19±0.23, 82.02±1.25%, 58.04±11.54%, 90.86±1.25% and 4.54±0.43 respectively). The quality of T. danielli seed protein compared favourably with that of the casein based diet. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the BV, PER, and NPU values between the casein based and the T. danielli based diets. The NPR value of the seed was significantly higher (p<0.05) compared to the casein diet.