Amino Acid Analysis and Biological Evaluation of Detoxified Thevetia Seed Meal

Large segments of the population in developing countries suffer from protein malnutrition for want of adequate quantity and quality of protein in their diets. With the increase in the world protein demand and supply, oilseeds have continued to be relevant as major sources of protein in animal feed production. There is need to develop novel protein sources that will serve as food just for animal consumption, thereby eliminating the competition between man and animals. One such approach to the problem is the detoxification of the many abundant oilseeds indigenous to the tropics, which are not yet fully utilized because of toxins and anti-nutrients in them. Therefore, Thevetia peruviana seed meal was detoxified using two methods - acid hydrolysis followed by ethanolic extraction of the released aglycones and direct ethanolic extraction of the cardiac glycosides. Amino acid analysis of the detoxified TSM showed that the alcohol-detoxified meal had a better amino acid profile and higher essential amino acid contents than either the raw meal or the acid-detoxified meal.