Amaranthus edulis: an ancient food source re-examined

Abstract

The nutritional potential of an ancient food grain, A. edulis, was appraised by chemical analyses and in two feeding experiments with chickens and rats. The outstanding feature of the grain was its very favourable essential amino acid composition. The sample of grain used in these experiments contained 0.94% lysine, 0.66% methionine plus cystine, 1.54% arginine and 0.59% threonine in the dry matter. Raw and heat-treated grain contained 13.1 6 and 14.54 MJ kg-1 dry matter of nitrogen-corrected metabolizable energy. The raw grain contained a heat-labile toxin that affected hepatic function and depressed growth. Heat-treated A. edulis supported both chicken and rat performance, which approached or equalled that on a control diet. The heat-treated grain replaced over 70% of the grain and protein concentrate components of the control diet.