Chemical composition and in vitro protein digestibility of processed Mucuna pruriens seeds

Mucuna pruriens is a tropical legume with a great potential for animal feeding, however it also contains antinutritional properties. In order to determine the chemical composition and in vitro protein digestibility of processed Mucuna pruriens seeds this experiment was developed. The experiment was conducted at the Animal Nutrition laboratory of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Yucatan, Merida, Mexico. Five treatments consisted in: seed soaking in water 24 and 48 hours or in sodium bicarbonate 0.1 % and 0.2 % and the raw legume were used. The pH-stat ® methodology for determining the degree of hydrolysis of the protein was used. MS, ash and gross energy (GE), fibrous fractionation, tannin content and total phenols were analyzed. Data were analyzed by ANOVA with five treatments and four replications each. Dry matter was lower and the protein fraction in water treatments after 24 and 48 hours and 0.2% bicarbonate were increased comparing to the raw legume. An increment in degree of protein hydrolysis from all treatments compared to the raw legume was observed (5.52 vs 8.17, 8.38, 8.99 and 8.62 %, respectively) (P <0.001). The results show that in Mucuna pruriens seeds soaking in water and cooking as well as soaking in 0.1-0.2 % NaHCO3 and pressure cooking are equally effective methods to improve in vitro protein digestibility. Key words: pH-stat method; seed processing; velvet bean