Protein Quality of African Oil Bean Seed (Pentaclethra machrophylla)

A study was made of the protein quality of raw, heat processed and fermented African oil bean seed (Pentaclethra macrophylla). Rats given fermented seeds consumed more food than rats given heat‐treated seeds which, in turn, consumed more food than rats given the raw seeds. Fermentation and heat treatment improved apparent digestibility, feed conversion efficiency (FCE) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). In general, rats given the various forms of the oil seed lost weight, resulting in a negative PER and FCE. There was, however, a consistent improvement in the performance of rats when samples were heat‐treated and better improvement when fermented. The probable reason for the poor performance is discussed.