Research Article

Chemical Composition, Nutritive Value, and Toxicological Evaluation of Bauhinia cheilantha Seeds: A Legume from Semiarid Regions Widely Used in Folk Medicine

Table 5

Nutritional parameters of rats fed on B. cheilantha seed meal and protein concentrate compared with those of rats fed on NPC, casein, and soybean diets.

ParametersDiets*
NPCCaseinSoybeanRaw Bc Soaked Bc Heated Bc BcPCd

Initial body weight (g)74.2 ± 5.6a71.5 ± 4.1a72.3 ± 4.2a72.8 ± 4.6a74.2 ± 5.7a72.7 ± 5.2a74.0 ± 5.9a
Final body weight (g)55.7 ± 4.1d117.8 ± 9.8a80.2 ± 6.4b55.3 ± 2.2d57.6 ± 4.4d70.2 ± 6.5b63.6 ± 4.6c
Daily food intake (g)5.5 ± 0.8c12.3 ± 0.8a7.6 ± 1.5b3.2 ± 0.4c4.4 ± 0.9c5.9 ± 0.7b6.0 ± 0.8b
NPU (%)64.7 ± 4.3a26.2 ± 3.9b−40.3 ± 5.9d−7.5 ± 1.8c25.6 ± 1.6b26.6 ± 1.7b
Protein digestibility (%)93.8 ± 2.4a92.2 ± 4.0a77.2 ± 7.2b70.4 ± 7.3b76.5 ± 7.4b91.0 ± 8.1a
Biological value69.0 ± 4.7a28.4 ± 2.8b−14.7 ± 1.7c−80.9 ± 7.2d33.5 ± 3.2b29.2 ± 2.6b

Values in a horizontal row with different following letters differ significantly ( ).
*For key to diets see Table 1.
Per rat.
Per group of 12 rats.