Amino Acids Composition of Liver, Heart and Kidneys of <i>Thryonomys swingerianus </i>(Temminck 1827) Compared

Abstract

Amino acids composition of Thryonomysswingerianus is reported. Whereas protein values (g100g-1) were liver (74.1), kidney (91.5), heart (84.6); corresponding total amino acid values were 93.5, 83.2 and 80.6. True protein from the crude protein of the samples ran thus: liver>kidney>heart. Of the twenty parameters reported on, liver was best in 12/20 (60.0%), kidney and heart both shared the second position of 4/20(20%) each. Among the essential amino acids, leucine predominated in both liver (7.96g100g-1 protein) and kidney (8.11g100g-1 protein) but valine (6.21g100g-1 protein) predominated in the heart. The P-PER values were; P-PER1: 2.78 (liver), 2.91(kidney), 0.716 (heart) and P-PER2: 2.71 (liver), 2.90 (kidney), 0.564 (heart). However, there was a reverse between liver and kidney in the EAAI values with liver (92.0) > kidney (90.2) > heart (87.6) with corresponding BV values of 88.5 > 86.6 > 83.7. In the amino acids scoring pattern, Ser was limiting in liver (0.533) and heart (0.394) but Thr (0.490) in kidney in whole hen’s egg score comparison; in FAO/WHO scoring standards, Thr was limiting in liver (0.988) and kidney (0.625) but Leu (0.459) in heart. In pre-school requirements, liver recorded no limiting amino acid whereas Thr was limiting in kidney (0.735) and Leu was limiting in the heart (0.486). T.swingerianus red viscera was compared with the red viscera of livestock animals (cattle, sheep and pork) as well as FAO/WHO/UNU standards for total essential amino acids. Our results when compared with the livestock red viscera (without Trp) and FAO/WHO/UNU (g100g-1 protein), we have heart: grasscutter/cattle/sheep/pig:45.3 /46.0/42.7/46.6; kidney: grasscutter/cattle/sheep/pig: 47.6/43.8/42.5/46.7; liver: grasscutter/cattle/sheep/pig: 50.7/47.7/41.5/47.5 and grasscutter liver/kidney/heart/ FAO/WHO/UNU:50.7/47.6/45.3/32.8 showing that all the red viscera values in T.swingerianus were better than the essential amino acids in the FAO/WHO/UNU standards and livestock red viscera. Statistical values showed that significant differences existed among the samples at r=0.01.