Biochemical and Nutritional Compositions of Two Accessions of <i>Amaranthus Cruentus</i> Seed Flour

Amaranth is one of the few multi-purpose crops which can produce grains and tasty leafy vegetables of high nutritional quality as food for human consumption and animal feedstuff. Amaranth seeds have not recorded commercial success worldwide, due to the dominance of cereals and specific taste of amaranth leaves. However, previous research works have focused more on its cultivation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the biochemical and nutritional composition of two accessions (PI538319 and PI538326) of Amaranthus cruentus seed flour and to evaluate the protein quality and the potential use of its flour to formulate functional foods and nutraceuticals, amino acid profiles of the samples were determined using the Technicon sequential multi-sample amino acid analyzer. The amino acid score was calculated with reference to amino acid composition of the whole egg, as well as FAO/WHO reference amino acid pattern. The two accessions of Amaranthus cruentus (PI538319 and PI538326) showed high protein values of 15.5 and 16.1%, while the values of essential amino acid recorded were 32.84 and 32.90 g/100g respectively. Lysine, which is known to be deficient in most cereals, was found to be relatively high with values of 3.50 and 3.71 g/100g respectively. The percentage ratio of the essential to non-essential amino acids was in the range of 42 – 45%. With reference to FAO/WHO (2007) standard, the chemical scores showed that most of the essential amino acids in the two accessions of Amaranthus cruentus were present in high amounts when compared with other grain sources. Thus, with the nutritional composition and amino acid profiles, it shows that this seed flour can fulfill the protein requirements of an adult human being.