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Effect of Cooking and of Methionine Supplementation on the Growth-Promoting Property of Cowpea (Vigna Sinensis) Protein^{1, 2,}

Nutrition Section, Department of Animal Industry

W. J. Peterson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Chemistry, North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigh

The growth-promoting properties of the proteins of 5 samples of mature cowpea seeds grown in Texas and of 4 samples grown in Oklahoma were measured by incorporating the cowpeas as the source of protein in the diets of young rats. The 9 samples, representing 8 varieties of cowpeas, were used both raw and cooked and 6 of the raw cowpea diets were supplemented with methionine. All diets were fed in a single experiment arranged in a 5 x 5 balanced lattice design.

The differences in the mean growth responses of the rats to the various raw cowpea diets were not statistically significant. There were, however, indications that the quality of the protein was not the same for all samples of cowpeas and that this variation in quality was associated partially with the variety and partially with the location at which the plants were grown.

Cooking the cowpeas in a double boiler had little effect on the growth-promoting property of some samples but markedly increased the growth response elicited by others. This effect was independent of the location at which the samples were grown.

Supplementing the diets containing the raw cowpeas with 0.3% methionine significantly increased the mean gain responses of the rats over those obtained from the unsupplemented raw or from the cooked samples.

The use of the balanced lattice design resulted in a reduction in the error variance of about 7%. The application of this design to the rat feeding experiment is discussed.

² The authors are indebted to Dr. B. H. Cordner of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station and Dr. W. H. Brittingham, formerly of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, now at the Virginia Truck Experiment Station, for supplying the samples of mature dried cowpea seed used in this work. The seed were grown in 1947 as a part of a cooperative study of factors affecting the nutritive value of cowpeas. The results of the cooperative study have been described by Wade et al. ('51).

Manuscript received 31 August 1953.