some relationships between the amino acid con- … · some relationships between the amino acid...

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SOME RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE AMINO ACID CON- TENTS OF PROTEINS AND THEIR NUTRITIVE VALUES FOR THE RAT BY H. H. MITCHELL AND RICHARD J. BLOCK (From the Division of Animal Nutrition, University of Illinois, Urbana, and tha Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, New York Aledical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, New York) (Received for publication, February 13, 1946) It is obvious that the nutritive value of a protein or mixture of proteins for any biological function or combination of functions is limited by the relative proportions of the essential amino acids contained in it; i.e., those amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the animal at a sufficiently rapid rate from any substances present in the usual diets. But it is not so clear that the amino acid make-up of a protein is the only considerabble factor limiting its utilization within the animal body. The experiments of Sherman and Woods (1) on the determination of cystine in proteins by means of feeding experiments with growing rats afford an illustration of a close relationship between amino acid content and the growth-promoting value of protein, though perhaps not sufficiently close to justify using a rat growth technique to check the accuracy of a chemical assay method for an amino acid, as Grau and Almquist (2) have done in their study of the methionine content of various feed proteins. With much the same conviction, Munks, Robinson, Beach, and Williams (3) have assessed the amino acid requirements of the laying hen for the pro- duction of one egg as being equal to the amino acids contained in one egg. Undoubtedly, this is a good basis on which to assess the net amino acid re- quirements, but it may afford quite uncertain information of the amino acid intakes from different protein combinations needed to cover Obese require- ments. Comparison of Chemical and Biological Methods of Assaying Protein Quality The study of the relationship between the amino acid constitution of pro- teins and their value in animal growth may be pursued further by comparing the amino acid contents of certain food products, as determined by modern methods, with the results of rat feeding experiments designed to detect the amino acids limit,ing their value in the nutrition of growth. For this pur- pose, use has been made of the amino acid analyses of food products re- 599 by guest on January 9, 2020 http://www.jbc.org/ Downloaded from

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Page 1: SOME RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE AMINO ACID CON- … · SOME RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE AMINO ACID CON- TENTS OF PROTEINS AND THEIR NUTRITIVE VALUES FOR THE RAT BY H. H. MITCHELL AND

SOME RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE AMINO ACID CON- TENTS OF PROTEINS AND THEIR NUTRITIVE VALUES

FOR THE RAT

BY H. H. MITCHELL AND RICHARD J. BLOCK

(From the Division of Animal Nutrition, University of Illinois, Urbana, and tha Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, New York Aledical

College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, New York)

(Received for publication, February 13, 1946)

It is obvious that the nutritive value of a protein or mixture of proteins for any biological function or combination of functions is limited by the relative proportions of the essential amino acids contained in it; i.e., those amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the animal at a sufficiently rapid rate from any substances present in the usual diets. But it is not so clear that the amino acid make-up of a protein is the only considerabble factor limiting its utilization within the animal body.

The experiments of Sherman and Woods (1) on the determination of cystine in proteins by means of feeding experiments with growing rats afford an illustration of a close relationship between amino acid content and the growth-promoting value of protein, though perhaps not sufficiently close to justify using a rat growth technique to check the accuracy of a chemical assay method for an amino acid, as Grau and Almquist (2) have done in their study of the methionine content of various feed proteins. With much the same conviction, Munks, Robinson, Beach, and Williams (3) have assessed the amino acid requirements of the laying hen for the pro- duction of one egg as being equal to the amino acids contained in one egg. Undoubtedly, this is a good basis on which to assess the net amino acid re- quirements, but it may afford quite uncertain information of the amino acid intakes from different protein combinations needed to cover Obese require- ments.

Comparison of Chemical and Biological Methods of Assaying Protein Quality

The study of the relationship between the amino acid constitution of pro- teins and their value in animal growth may be pursued further by comparing the amino acid contents of certain food products, as determined by modern methods, with the results of rat feeding experiments designed to detect the amino acids limit,ing their value in the nutrition of growth. For this pur- pose, use has been made of the amino acid analyses of food products re-

599

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600 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

cently assembled by Block and Bolling (4),l and later discussed by them (6), from the standpoint of nutritional applications. These values have been revised and supplemented to some extent by more recent analyses. The relative amino acid deficiencies of food proteins in the nutrition of the grow- ing rat can be revealed clearly only by a comparison of the proportions of the essential amino acids present in the proteins with the proportions exist- ing among the amino acid requirements of the rat for growth. These at present are unknown. However, in the proteins of whole egg we have an amino acid mixture that is very highly digestible and almost perfectly utili.zable in rodent metabolism, being better than milk proteins in this respect. This was first shown by Mitchell and Carman (7) for the growing rat and was later confirmed by Sumner (8) for both growing and mature rats. For the adult human subject, also, whole egg proteins seem to be better utilized than whole milk proteins (9,10).

In Table I are given the percentage deviations of the contents of different food proteins in the essential amino acids, in Rose’s sense of the term, and also in tyrosine and cystine, from the contents of the corresponding amino acids found in whole egg protein.2 The first column of the values represents the results of a recent analysis of a dried preparation of whole egg performed by one of the authors (R. J. B.).3 The methods used in this analysis will be given later. Each value in the other columns expresses the percentage deviation in the amino acid content of a specified protein mixture (stand- ardized to a nitrogen content of 16 per cent) from that of the proteins of dried whole egg. For example, beef muscle proteins, according to available analyses, contain 46 per cent less cystine than whole egg proteins, and 12 per cent more lysine. The amino acid limiting the nutritional value for maintenance and growth of the laboratory rat for any particular food pro- tein would be that amino acid present in the least amount with reference to

1 The recent communication of Vickery and Clarke (5)) criticizing the method used by Block and Boiling of computing the amino acid content of proteins to a uniform protein content of 16 per cent nitrogen, expresses the viewpoint of the protein chemist concerned solely with problems of protein structure. The viewpoint of the protein nutritionist, however, is entirely different, because the utilization of dietary proteins by animals can be studied only by the nitrogen balance sheet method at the present time. Hence, an amino acid analysis of a protein is most useful in protein nutrition as a chemical description of the nitrogen contained in it. From this standpoint, it is entirely immaterial whether the protein contains 15 or 18 per cent of nitrogen; in fact, for the most exact appraisal of a protein in nutrition, such differences in nitrogen content should be disregarded by computing amino acid contents on a conventional basis of 16 per cent of nitrogen.

2 A somewhat similar use of the amino acid content of whole egg proteins has been made by Stare, Hegsted, and McKibbin (11).

a Dried and solvent-extracted at low temperatures by the VioBin Corporation, Monticello, Illinois, through the courtesy of Mr. Ezra Levin.

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604 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

whole egg proteins; i. e., that amino acid with the greatest percentage deficit in Table I. Thus, the limiting amino acid in pea proteins is methionine (-76), that in blood serum proteins isoleucine (-62), and in wheat pro- teins lysine ( - 63).

The “indicated limiting amino acids” listed at the bottom of Table I are taken to be those essential amino acids in greatest percentage deficit. In such deductions, the arginine percentages are disregarded, since the grow- ing rat can, to some unknown extent, supplement a dietary deficiency in this amino acid by its limited capacity to synthesize it. In view of the known relationship of cystine and methionine in metabolism, whereby methionine is convertible into cystine but the reverse reaction does not occur, the limiting factor between these two was assumed to be methionine, or methionine plus cystine, whichever percentage deficit is the greater. The latter designation means that the protein in question is supplemented fully by methionine and to some extent by cystine also. The same rela- tionship exists between tyrosine and phenylalanine, but the necessity of distinguishing between these amino acids in this connection has not arisen in the construction of Table I.

The extent to which food proteins will supplement each other in a diet or ration will depend upon the identity or non-identity of their limiting amino acids, and, if they are not identical, upon the relative prominence of a com- mon deficiency in some other essential amino acid. Thus, whole milk pro- teins should obviously supplement rice proteins because the limiting amino acid in the one case is cystine plus methionine and in the other case lysine, but the extent of supplementation would presumably be slight because rice proteins are also rather seriously deficient in the sulfur-containing amino acids.

Such uses of the values listed in Table I should be tempered by the fact that several methods of amino acid analysis are still quite imperfect.

The main purpose of presenting the data summarized in Table I is to compare the amino acid contents of food proteins with reference to the con- tents in whole egg proteins, with the results of rat feeding experiments de- signed to detect the limiting amino acids in the same food proteins. The largest percentage deficits in essential amino acids for the various food pro- teins considered in Table I are in harmony with the following conclusions as to the amino acids limiting the growth-promoting values of the proteins for the rat.

The proteins of whole milk (12), beef (13), soy beans (13-15), the peanut (16,17), yeast (X3), the pea (19), and casein (20,21) are deficient in cystine or methionine or both. On the other hand, lactalbumin is definitely not deficient in cystine (21).

The proteins of wheat (13), oats (13), rye (22), corn (13,23), rice (24), and

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 605

cottonseed (25) are deficient in lysine. The supplementation of corn and oats with lysine results in distinct, though slight, increase in growth-pro- moting power (13,23) because of the interposition of secondary deficiencies, identified as tryptophane for corn proteins, but unidentified in the case of oat proteins. The data of Table I suggest that the second deficiency in oat proteins may be methionine.

Light and Frey (26) present evidence that white flour proteins are de- ficient in valine as well as lysine, a conclusion that finds some support in the values given in Table I for this food product, but the methionine and isoleucine deficits seem even more severe.

The proteins of blood plasma are primarily deficient in isoleucine (27). Hemoglobin, which is 79 per cent (or more) deficient in isoleucine, seems to be improved as a source of protein for the growing rat by a supplement of this amino acid (28).

Hegsted, Hay, and Stare (29) in their recent study of the nutritive value of human plasma fractions, employing the ad l&turn feeding technique with young rats, found that serum albumin at a 20 per cent dietary level barely supported maintenance of body weight. The addition of isoleucine to the diet definitely improved the growth-promoting power of the ration, while the further addition of tryptophane brought about a marked improvement. Tryptophane alone had no appreciable effect. The values given in Table II, similar in significance to those in Table I, show that the greatest per- centage deficits of serum albumin are 80 for tryptophane and 75 for iso- leucine. These deficits in amino acid composition agree reasonably well with the biological tests reported by the Harvard group.

However, the amino acid constitution of proteins, as it is presented in Tables I and II, is not always in good agreement with reported biological tests with growing rats. Thus, the data of Table I indicate that soy bean proteins are deficient in methionine, although they are also supplemented by cystine (13-15). For alfalfa proteins, the greatest percentage deficit is that for isoleucine, although the biological evidence seems clear that they are deficient in cystine and methionine (30,31). Marais and Smuts (32,33) have reported evidence that linseed meal and sesame seed meal are im- proved in growth-promoting value by supplementation with cystine rather than with lysine, as the chemical data indicate. The fact that these work- ers use rats of much greater initial weight than usual may partially explain this discrepancy, a comment that is prompted by the fact that some of the results obtained with the technique of these workers do not harmonize with results secured in other laboratories, for example the failure to demon- strate a methionine deficiency in peanut meal (33) and a lysine deficiency in oats (32).

The computations in Table I may be used to compare the amino acid

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606 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

compositions of food proteins expressed as percentage deviations from the amino acid contents of the proteins of whole egg, with their biological values for the growing rat, as determined by the nitrogen metabolism method, developed by Mitchell (34, 7).4 One might expect that the proteins least deficient in any limiting essential amino acid would possess a higher bio- logical value than one more deficient, and that in general it would be pos- sible to arrange food proteins in the order of decreasing biological efhciency by placing at the head of the list the protein whose limiting amino acid is least deficient, as compared with a nearly perfect mixture of amino acids buch as is found in whole egg proteins. The other food proteins would then

TABLE II

Relative Nutritive Value oj Blood Proteins As Revealed by Their Amino Acid Constitution

Whole egg.

prote1nr

ger cent

Arginine .................... 6.4 Hi&dine. .................. 2.1 Lysine ...................... 7.2 Tyrosine .................... 4.5 Phenylalanine ............... 6.3 Tryptophane ................. 1.5 Cystine ..................... 2.4 Methionine ................. 4.1 Cystine + methionine ....... 6.5 Threonine ................... 4.9 Leueine ..................... 9.2 Isoleucine. .................. 8.0 Valine ...................... 7.3 Indicat,ed limiting amino

acid ...................... Greatest deficit. ............

I ‘1

-

Percentage deviation from whole egg values

Yhole serum

-5 +48 +33 +20 -14

+13 +54 -54 -14 +29 +96 -62 -18

Isoleu- tine

62

krum albumin

-6 +67 +44 +I8 +22 -80

+171 -68

1-5 +4

+29 -75

-4 Trypto-

phane 80

Fibrin

+22 +29

+22 +29

-5 +127

-21 -24 -23 +61 +52 -37 -18

Isoleu- tine

37

-

. _

-

y-Globulin

-25 +19

-7 +51

f93 +29 -73 -35

-12 -59 f38

Methionine

73

follow in the order of the percentage deficits in t.heir respective limit,ing amino acids.

Table III was compiled to reveal such a relationship. The limiting amino acids are those indica,ted by biological assay, or, in the absence of such in- formation, they are identified as those acids present in the protein in the least amount relative to whole egg. The percentage deficits in the third

4 R.ecent improvements in the method relate to equalized feeding by paired rats on comparative diets, the use of a feces marker, and apport,ioning the endogenous urinary N in proportion to the three-fourths power of the body weight rather than with body weight itself.

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 607

column are taken directly from Table I. The biological values and digest- ibilities of protein, occupying the next two columns, are taken from pub- lished and unpublished data secured in the Division of Animal Nutrition of the University of Illinois, except for lactalbumin, rice, sesame seed, and

TABLE III

Relation between Percentage Deficits in Limiting Essential Amino Acids with Reference to Whole Egg Proteins, and Biological Values of Proteins

Protein sounx Limiting essential amino acid

Beef muscle ........ “ liver. .........

Egg albumin ....... Cow’s milk ......... Lactalbumin ....... Beef kidney ........

‘I heart .......... Casein ............. Sunflower seed. .... Soy bean. .......... Rolled oats. ....... Yeast, average. .... White rice. ........ Corn germ ......... Sesame seed ........ Wheat germ ........ Whole wheat ....... Cottonseed. ........ Whole corn ......... White flour. ........ Peanut. ............ Pea. ............... Gelatin ............

Cystine + methionine Isoleucine Lysine Cystine + methionine Met.hionine Cystine + methionine Isoleucine Cystine + methionine Lysine Methionine Lysine Cystine + methionine Lysine Methionine Lysine Isoleucine Lysine

“ “ “

Methionine “

Tryptophane

- 7-

P

29 30 31 32 34 35 35 42 47 51 54 55 56 61 61 62 63 63 72 72 76 76

100 -

3iolog ical

value

Xges- ibility

er ce*i :7 cent

76 100 77 97 82 100 90 95 84 98 77 99 74 100 73 99 65 94 75* 96* 66 93 69 93 66 78 78 85 71 92 75 95 70 91 61 90 60 94 52 100 58 97 48 91

25$ 951

1 e

-I-

Biblio- :raphic refer- ence NO.

(35) (36)

(7) (12) (21) (36) (36) C-30) (37) (37)

i (38) (3% (40)

!A)

CL) (7)

(35) (43) (44)

* The biological data were secured with heated soy flour. t The digestibilities and biological values given are from unpublished data secured

on growing rats in the Division of Animal Nutrition, University of Illinois. $ The biological data were secured with “pork cracklings” consisting essentially

of connective tissue.

the pea. The literature references in the last column of Table III denote the source of the biological data.

Inspection of Table III reveals a correlation between the chemical and the biological evaluations of food proteins in that the lower biological values

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608 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

tend to gravitate toward the foot of the table, while the better proteins are found at the top.

The correlation coetlicient of percentage deficits in limiting essential amino acids and biological values is -0.861 by the product-moment method, in which perfect negative correlation is represented by -1.000. It is worthy of note that little or no correlation exists between amino acid deficits and coefficients of digestibility, with r = -0.366. If the latter correlation is a significant one, it exists, not because of any inherent rela- tionship between the content of proteins in essential amino acids and their

Y=biological value My = 68.3 6y= 13.4

X=%, amino acid deficit Mx= 53.8 6x= 18.2

= -0.861

FIG. 1. Correlation between the chemical constitution and the biological values of proteins.

digestibility by enzymes, but because of the association of plant proteins of lower biological value with polysaccharides such as celluloses and hemi- celluloses that, as Mendel and Fine (45) showed many years ago, impair proteolysis by imposing indigestible barriers between protease and substrate.

The degree of correlation between the percentage deficits in essential amino acids of proteins and their biological values, as was determined by the nitrogen metabolism method, is shown graphically in Fig. 1. The regression equation for the prediction of biological value (y) from the maxi- mum percentage deficit in essential amino acid (x) is y = 102 - 0.634x. This equation means that with zero deficit the biological value should be

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 609

100, the difference between 102 and 100 being an error of random sampling. For a percentage deficit of 100, the biological value should be 39. It seems reasonable to qualify this latter statement to apply only to proteinswhose biological efficiency is limited by the complete absence of an amino acid essential for growth but not for maintenance, such as histidine. Other- wise, the replacement of endogenous losses is impaired, as well as the ability to support growth, so that the biological value possesses a somewhat dif- ferent significance. With gelatin, tryptophane, the first limiting amino acid, is required for maintenance as well as for growth, and the biological value of 25 is for this reason, perhaps, somewhat less than the prediction, 39.

Hegsted, Hay, and Stare (29) compared the growth-promoting value of serum albumin, fibrin, and y-globulin from human plasma with young rats fed ad libitum in rations containing 20 per cent of protein. The albumin proved to be the poorest, the fibrin definitely and markedly the best, almost as good as the proteins of skim milk powder, and y-globulin was of inter- mediate value. The maximum percentage deficits in essential amino acids for these proteins, given on the bottom line of Table II, agree with this biological evaluation, the deficits being 37 for fibrin, not much more than the 32 for milk proteins given in Table III, 73 for y-globulin, and 80 for albumin.

There are obvious imperfections in the correlation of chemical and bio- logical data summarized in Table III. These imperfections may in part be traceable ultimately to inaccuracies in the data. The average biological values determined in the Nutrition Laboratory of the University of Illinois will have a standard error of about 1.2 (35). The percentage deficits in limiting amino acids, being difference values, may be subject to a much greater error. But there are other disturbing factors in the picture. The biological values relate to the total nitrogen content of the food material, while the amino acid analyses may not. In Table III the animal tissues, muscle, liver, kidney, and heart, rank higher on the chemical scale than on the biological scale. All of these tissues contain considerable amounts of non-protein nitrogenous substances possessing little value in relation to the animal functions that dietary protein serves. The biological values of the true proteins in these tissues may be appreciably higher than those of the conventional proteins (N X 6.25).

Wheat germ and corn germ proteins, on the other hand, are rated much lower on the basis of their chemical structure than on that of their biological performance. The explanation is not at all obvious. The high nutritive value for peanut protein that has been secured by another method of bio- logical assay than the biological value in the sense of Thomas (46) finds no support from the chemical data reported in Table I.

Another possibility is that an imperfect correlation actually describes the

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610 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

situation, other factors than the amino acid constitution of proteins being involved in their nutritive availability. One illustration of the operation of such factors is afforded by the change8 occurring in seed proteins on ger- mination . Everson et al. (47) showed that germination of soy beans greatly improved their nutritive value for growing rats, as measured by the gain secured per gm. of protein consumed, without improving the digestibility of nitrogen. This observation was confirmed for rats, but not for chicks, by Mattingly and Bird (48). However, Block and Bolling (6), by analyses for tyrosine, tryptophane, phenylalanine, cystine, and methionine, were unable to detect any change in soy bean protein during germination for 96 hours. Since the amino acids limiting the biological value of soy bean proteins are cystine and methionine, their constant proportion in the protein molecule during germination would not lead one to expect any change in nutritive value.

Effect of Heat on Proteins5

When food products are heated, their proteins are known to undergo cer- tain changes in nutritive value. The digestibility may be improved (49) or depressed (12) and the biological value may be similarly changed. The improvement in t.he digestibility and the biological value of certain of the legume proteins is a striking phenomenon (50,37). Soy bean proteins have been studied most thoroughly in this connection, and it has been shown that the raw, as well as the heated, proteins are deficient in the sulfur-containing amino acids. In some way, heat renders these amino acids more available in nutrition, obviously without changing the content of essential amino acids. The report of Ham, Sandstedt, and Mussehl (51) that the applica- tion of heat, to soy beans dest.roys a proteolytic-inhibiting substance in the raw bean may partially explain this phenomenon. The position of soy bean proteins in the rankings att,empted in Table III supports a correlation be- tween limiting amino acid deficiencies and biological value only when t,he maximum biological value of the heated product is considered. The raw product, with a biological value of 59 (37), would be distinctly out of line with the other proteins. Evidently the application of heat is necessary to attain the full pot,ential nutritive capacity of soy bean proteins.

The protein of the pea possesses a low biological value and its chemical rating is also low (see Table III). On heating, its nutritive value is de- pressed (19). The cereal proteins and the proteins of milk, which also are impaired by heating, each seem to have comparable chemical and biological ratings. On the basis of these facts, one might be tempted to venture the prediction that, in such a list.ing as is illustrated in Table III, food products

6 The original dat,a presented in this section mere secured with the aid of funds COD.- tributed by General Mills, Inc., of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 611

whose unheated proteins are ranked much lower by an adequate biological assay than by a chemical appraisal of the type here used would exhibit an improvement in biological value on heating, while those food proteins whose biological assays and chemical rabings show reasonable agreement would ex- hibit a decrease in biological value on heating.

The most usual effect of heat on the nutritive qualities of food proteins is a depressing one, well illustrated by the recent work of Stewart, Hensley, and Peters (52) on oats and mixed cereals.

We would like to present a somewhat intensive study of the changes that occur in cereal proteins during heating, first, with reference to t,heir digesti- bilit,y and biological value for the immature and the mature rat, and, then, with reference to the content of raw and heated proteins in the essential amino acids.

The cereals studied were an oat-corn-rye mixture sold as a breakfast food,6 and rolled oats. The method of assay of protein (nitrogen) digesti- bility and biological value was essentially that described by Mitchell (34)) with young growing albino rats, and, later, mature rats.

The average digestibilities and biological values of the nitrogen of the unheated, the partially processed (pelleted), and the fully processed (ex- ploded) cereal mixture are given in Table IV, together with the results ob- tained with raw and cooked rolled oats. The differences bet,ween average results, with their standard errors, are as follows:

Cereal mixture, unprocessed TS. pelleted

Differences with standad errors Digestibility Biological value

2.E+4 rt 0.74 0.42 f 0.74

Cereal mixture pell ted TS. fully pro- 3.58 f 0.72 11.47 f 1.23 cessed

Cereal mixture, unprocessed US. raw 0.63 f 0.71 2.10 * 0.73 rolled oats

Rolled oats, raw cs. cooked 1.63 f 0.68 2.86 f 1.00

Such an analysis reveals that the pelleting of the cereal mixture defi- nitely depressed the digestibility of the protein, without appreciably affect- ing its biological value. Further processing, involving treatment under high steam pressure (gun explosion), definitely and considerably lowered both the digestibility and the biological value of the protein. The ralv rolled oats contained protein definitely, if only slightly, superior in bio- logical value to t,he protein of the oat-corn-rye mixture, though no more digest,ible. Cooking the rolled oats in accordance with the recommended domestic practice probably lowers the digestibility of the protein, and increases slightly the biological value.

6 Puffed oat cereal No. 1.

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612 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

The data reported in Tables V, VI, and VII were obtained with growing rats in a succession of three experimental periods, the standardizing period

TABLE IV True Digestibility and Biological Value of Nitrogen of Cereal Products before and after

Processing, for Growing Rats* -7

- I t

-

-

12 12 24 30 24

True digestibility Biological value

per cent per cent

91.67 f 0.56 62.67 f 0.48 88.83 f 0.49 62.25 -f 0.56 85.25 f 0.53 50.78$ * 1.10 92.30 f 0.43 64.77 f 0.55 90.67 f 0.53 67.63 f 0.83

Products

Oat-corn-rye mixture, unprocessed.. . . . . . “ “ pelleted. . . . . . . . . “ “ t fully processed.

Rolled oats, raw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “ “ cooked. . . . . . . . . . . . .

* These determinations were carried out in the research laboratories of General Mills, Inc., by Miss Claire A. Frederick under the supervision of Dr. C. G. Ferrari.

t Puffed oat cereal No. 1. t Average of eighteen determinations.

TABLE V True Digestibility and Biological Value for Growing Rats of Nitrogen of Oat-Malted

Wheat Flour Mixture before and after Heat Processing (( Sun Explosion)

i- I- -i- Processed mixture* Unprocessed mixture Rat No. Period No. Period No.

95 M. 97 “ 99 “

101 F. 103 “ 96 M. 98 “

100 (( 102 F. 104 “

Bi;&&cal True digestibility

Bi&$al

ger cent

64 64 65 65 70 70 64 70 64 59

True digestibility

per cent 86 83 87 88 85 83 83 84 80 82

_-

_ -

-

_-

- _

-

--

-_

-

1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3

per cent

53 50 53 53 51 53 51 53 49 52

per cent

90 91 94 91 94 91 92 92 94 90

3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1

34.1 51.8 91.9 65.5 Averages . . . . . . . .

* Puffed oat cereal No. 2.

being the second, while the first and third periods were planned so that each rat received each of the test foods, half of them in one order and half in the reverse order (for further details of the procedure, see (37)).

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 613

TABLE VI

True Digestibility and Biological Value for Growing Rats of Nitrogen of Processed Oat-Malted Wheat Flour Mixture* and of Rolled Oats -

I - I

-

_-

-

Oat-malted wheat flour mixture Rolled oats

Period No. Period No. Rat No.

55 M. 57 “ 59 “ 61 F. 63 “ 56 M. 58 “ 60 “ 62 F. 64 “

True digestibility -

per cm&t per cent

83 51 84 48 88 50 84 48 87 45 90 52 87 50 89 54 87 55 89 56

86.8

True digestibility

Bi;&&cal

- per cent per cent

90 69 91 65 93 70 94 68 97 73 91 65 94 67 91 67 91 58 97 58

_-

- -

-

. -

-

-

_ _

-

-

_ _

-

- -

-

1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3

3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1

50.9 92.9 Averages............ 66.0

*Puffed oat cereal No. 2.

TABLE VII

True Digestibility and Biological Value for Growing Rats of Nitrogen of Uncooked Rolled Oats and of Oat-Corn-Rye Mixture*

T T Rolled oats Oat-corn-rye mixture Rat No. Period No. Period No.

3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1

True digestibility

Bic$&al

per cent per cent 91 67 89 71 90 73 93 68 90 67 91 65 90 67 91 66 90 68 89 69 91 67 92 67

TW.5 digestibility

ger cent per cent 90 63 92 63 91 62 92 63 93 62 93 64 91 64 93 64 92 67 94 71 92 63 93 63

--

-_

--

-_

1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3

115 M. 117 “ 119 F. 121 “ 123 M. 125 “ 116 “ 118 “ 120 F. 122 “ 124 M. 126 “

Averages . . . . . . . . . . 90.6 67.9 92.2 64.1

* Puffed oat cereal No. 1.

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614 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

With a slightly modified cereal mixture consisting mainly of oats, it is apparent from Table V that the gun explosion process lowered the digesti- bility of the proteins by 7.8 percentage units and the biological value by 13.7 percentage units. The proteins of the processed cereal mixture were also inferior to the proteins of rolled oats, both in digestibility and in biological value (Table VI). The oat-corn-rye mixture, unprocessed, contained

TABLE VIII Replacement Value oj” Nitrogen of Processed Oat-Corn-Rye Mixture* on That of

Un,processed 11

Perior No.

-r Rat Wo.

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 2s 29 30

lixture for Adult Male Rats, Comparing Each Rat with Its Pair Mate in Same Experimental Period

Source of protein

Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix Unprocessed mix Processed mix I-nprocessed mix Processed mix

/

.j-

Difference in nitrogen balance

mc.

1

2

mg. w.

119 +2.31 120 +15.58 119 +3.86 120 +22.58 119 -4.66 120 +25.64 119 +1.63 120 +15.06 1’17 i +2.44 12s -2.91

84 +9.57 84 -9.24 84 +6.59 84 -8.31 84 -2.00 84 -s.75 84 +1.82 84 -8.16 90 +1.66 91 -11.98

13.27

18.72

30.30

13.43

-5.35 18.81

14.90

6.75

9.98

13.64

- Average.................,.,..,.........,...........................

* Puffed oat cereal No. 1.

Nitrogen Nitrogen intake per balance

day per day .’

:eplacement ValW

fier cent

89

84

75

89

104 78

82

92

88

85

86.6

somewhat more digestible proteins than rolled oats, but with a somewhat inferior biological vahe (Table TIII).

Additional evidence of the injurious effects of t’he gun explosion process on the nutritive value of the proteins of cereals is afforded by the data collected in Table VIII on the nitrogen metabolism of mature albino rats. In these experiments, the rations contained only 4 or 5 per cent of the test proteins, as contrasted with the tests on the growing rats, which received

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 615

rations containing about 10 per cent of protein. The lower protein require- ments of maturity, as compared with adolescence, dictated such a change. In the two experimental periods, the diets were reversed for all rats, and a system of paired feeding was adopted whereby paired rats received equal amounts of their respective diets. The nutritive efficiency of the compara- tive proteins was judged entirely on the basis of the nitrogen intake and the balance of nitrogen. The replacement values of processed on unprocessed cereal proteins were computed in accordance with the scheme proposed by Murlin, Nasset, and Marsh (53); namely, 100 minus the difference in nitro- gen balance on the two test proteins expressed as a percentage of the intake of nitrogen. In the present case, a replacement value less than 100 indi- cates the inferiority of the processed protein.

In nine of the ten comparisons presented in Table VIII, the processed protein proved to be inferior to the unprocessed protein. The average re- placement value was 86.6, indicating a heat damage of 13.4 per cent. In- spection of the complete data of this experiment reveals that, this damage results in about equal degree from an impairment in digestibility and an impairment in metabolic utilization, as measured by the biological value.

The data presented above reveal a marked depression in the digestibility and the biological value of the proteins of cereal mixtures subjected to the extreme heat of the gun explosion process of breakfast food manufacture. This depression is evident in the nutrition of maturity, as well as in ado- lescent nutrition. However, when these “puffed” cereals are consumed with the usual proportions of milk, the nutritive value of the mixed pro- teins is high, owing to the marked supplementary relations existing between the proteins of cereals and of milk.7

The data also reveal that oat protein, subjected to domestic cooking, is not impaired in nutritive value, but that the protein of uncooked rolled oats is definitely superior to that of the cereal mixtures tested, whether processed or unprocessed.

In order to determine whether these changes in nutritive value of cereal proteins were associated with changes in their contents of the essential amino acids, analyses for the latter were carried out by one of us (R. J. B.) upon the unprocessed, the pelleted, and the exploded cereal mixture and upon uncooked rolled oats. The results are assembled in Table IX. The methods used in these analyses are indicated in Table X. These methods were the same as those used to obtain the amino acid content of whole egg

7 Thus, the heat-damaged cereal mixture, for which data are reported in Table V, when consumed (by growing rats) with a 1: 1 milk-cream mixture in the proportion of 1 part of dry cereal to 4 parts of milk-cream, exhibited a protein digestibility of 93 per cent and a biological value of 85. These values apply, of course, to the mixed proteins.

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616 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTEINS

TABLE IX

Amino Acid Content of Processed and Unprocessed Cereals; All Values Calculated to Protein Containing 16 Per Cent Nitrogen

Amiio acid

Arginine .............. Histidine. ............. Lysine ................ Tyrosine .............. Phenylalanine ......... Tryptophane .......... Cystine. .............. Methionine ............ Threonine. ............ Leucine ............... Isoleucine ............. Valine .................

-

-

-

Oat-Corn-Rye Mixture*

Unprocessed

per CWCC

5.0 1.9 2.1 4.3 5.6 1.1 1.6 2.4 3.6 8.8 5.6 6.2

-

_-

-

Pelleted

per cent

5.4 2.0 2.0 4.1 5.5 1.1 1.7 2.4 3.9 8.7 5.4 6.0

-

_-

-

Pelleted and exploded

-

_ - per cent per Gent

5.0 5.8 2.1 1.9 2.2 1.9 4.0 4.1 6.0 5.4 1.1 1.1 1.5 1.4 2.5 2.1 3.5 3.2 8.8 8.9 5.4 4.9 5.8 5.5

* Steps in the manufacture of puffed oat cereal No. 1.

TABLE X

Amino Acid Methods Employed

Amino acid

Arginine ....... Histidine. ...... Lysine ......... Tyrosine ....... Phenylalanine . . Tryptophane ... Cystine. ....... Methionine. ....

Threonine. ..... Leucine ........ Isoleucine ...... Valine ..........

-

--

-

Method Type of hydrolysis

Kossel-Block isolation ‘I I‘ ‘I “

Millon-Lugg calorimetric Kapeller-Adler “ Millon-Lugg “ Fleming-Vassel “ McCarthy-Sullivan colori-

metric Block-Nicolet oxidation Microbiological

8 N HzSOd 8 “ “

8” ” 5 “ NaOH 5“ ‘I 5“ “ Formic acid-HCI 18% HCl

18 “ I‘

3N “ 3 “ “ 3 “ “

-

Rolled oats

No. of replicate letermi- nations

4 4 4 8

12 8 8 6

6 20 20 20

proteins (Table I), with the following exceptions : threonine was determined by the oxidation method of Shinn and Nicolet (54), and lysine by the micro- biological method of Dunn et al. (55), as well as by isolation as the picrate.

It will be noted from the data in Table IX that the amino acid content of

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H. H. MITCHELL AND R. J. BLOCK 617

the proteins of the oat-corn-rye mixture has not been altered appreciably,, either by the heat involved in the pelleting process or by the more severe heat used in the gun explosion process. In particular, the lysine content shows no evidence of impairment, a fact of interest because lysine is the amino acid limiting the nutritive value of cereal proteins. Here we have, therefore, a definite impairment by heat of the digestibility and biological value of the proteins in a cereal mixture (Tables V and VIII), with no apparent destruction of the essential amino acid, lysine, limiting the bio- logical utilization of the proteins (Table IX). Block, Jones, and Gers- dorff (56) showed that the lysine content of casein was not impaired by ex- posure to dry heat at a temperature of 150”. It was suggested that this treatment may have brought about a molecular rearrangement “so that a part of the lysine precursors (rests) become resistant to enzymatic degrada- tion.” The formation of a new peptide linkage between the E-amino group of lysine and a free carboxyl group of other amino acids is a possibility.

The data of Table IX fail to suggest, much less indicate, any essential difference in the protein value of rolled oats and of the oat-corn-rye mixture, although the results of the test on immature rats presented in Table VII reveal a very distinct superiority in nutrition of the proteins of oats over those of the mixture, and Table VI presents evidence on growing rats of the superiority of oat proteins over those of a similar cereal mixture. Possibly those differences in biological value are well within the analytical error of amino acid methods.

A depression of the nutritive value of proteins by heat without involving amino acid destruction is conceivable on the following grounds. (1) The digestibility of the protein may be depressed without incurring amino acid destruction, as Seegers and Mattill (57) found for heated liver preparations. (2) A decreased digestibility may involve the elimination in the feces of a protein fraction containing disproportionate amounts of certain amino acids, as Jones and Waterman (58) found for the protein, arachin. (3) The application of heat to a protein may promote certain combinations between terminal groupings that are resistant to proteolytic action, re- sulting in atypical peptides that may be absorbed as such (59, 60) and excreted in the urine.

SUMMARY

1. The relationship of the amino acid constitution of a protein, or of the protein component of a food product, to its nutritive value for the growing rat can be best revealed, in the absence of accurate values for the amino acid requirements, by computing for each protein, or protein moiety, the percentage deviations of the contents of each essential amino acid, expressed per 16 gm. of nitrogen, from the corresponding contents of a protein mix-

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618 AMINO ACIDS IN PROTElNS

ture, such as that of whole egg, that is almost completely digestible by the rat and utilizable in adolescent metabolism. This has been done for a series of twenty-eight proteins and protein mixtures for which satisfactory an- alyses have been secured for a.11 of t.he essential amino acids.

2. From such computations, the essential amino acid limiting the nutri- tive efficiency of the protein will be revealed as that one whose percentage deficit from that of the standard protein (whole egg’) is the greatest, due consideration being given to the reciprocal relation existing between cystine and methionine in anabolism. The limiting amino acids thus indicated agree with those determined in feeding experiments with only one or two exceptions.

3. The proteins of foods may be ranked in the order of decreasing nutri- tive efficiency on the basis of increasing percentage deficits (as above de- fined) in their respective limiting essential amino acids. These percenta,ge deficits are highly correlated (r = -0.86) with the corresponding biological values determined by the nitrogen metabolism method. Little or no correlation exists between the chemical ratings of the proteins and their digestibility by the growing rat.

4. The biological value of a protein (y) may be roughly estimated from its maximum percentage deficit in an essential amino acid (z) by the equa- tion: y = 102 - 0.634x.

5. However, there are known instances in which the biological value of a protein, or protein mixture, and its chemical rab;ing do not agree, for various reasons discussed in the text.

6. In particular, the nutritive value of cereal proteins may be greatly impaired by the application of heat with no demonstrated alteration in their content. of the essential amino acids.

7. A basis for predicting the effect of heat on the biological value of a food prot,ein is suggested.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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H. H. Mitchell and Richard J. BlockVALUES FOR THE RAT

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