Further studies on the limiting amino‐acids differently processed groundnut meals

Abstract Different samples of groundnut meal were fed to growing chicks and supplemented factorially with the three amino‐acids lysine, methionine and threonine. There were appreciable differences among the samples in terms of their growth‐promoting properties and the order of amino‐acid limitation. In a comparison of differently processed groundnuts from the same fresh supply, it was found that a solvent‐extracted preparation was equally limiting in all three amino‐acids and responded only to the triple‐supplementation. An expeller pressed meal, as well as an expeller and solvent‐extracted preparation was first limiting in lysine but responded differently to other combinations of the three amino‐acids. Amino‐acid analysis of the different groundnut samples indicated differences, particularly a lower sulphur‐containing amino‐acid content for solvent‐extracted meals. All of the groundnut meals tested had a lower lysine content than those reported in the literature.