Nutritional value of detoxified Jatropha curcas seed cake protein isolates using rats as an animal model

A bioassay study was conducted to investigate the effects of substituting casein with graded levels of detoxified Jatropha curcas seed cake protein isolates (JPI) as a protein source on the growth performance, feed efficiency ratio (FER) and its protein values using rats as an animal model. Thirty 21-day-old male Sprague–Dawley weaned rats were randomly divided into 5 groups, each group with 6 replications (n = 1). Each group consumed one of the following diets: protein-free, casein (CAS) and JPI diets (JPI20, JPI40 and JPI60; different levels of JPI to replace the casein at concentrations of 20%, 40% and 60% on crude protein basis). Feed intake and protein intake showed no difference among the rats fed JPI20, JPI40 and CAS diets (P > 0.05). However, these parameters were lower in the rats fed JPI60 than in rats fed CAS (P