Mineral and Amino Acid Contents of Kinema, a Fermented Soybean Food Prepared in Nepal.

Five sun-dried Kinema samples were collected from the eastern hills of Nepal and their proximate composition, mineral contents and amino acid compositions were analyzed. The Kinema contained 6.0±0.3% (mean±s.d., dry matter base) ash, and potassium comprised about 30% of the ash prepared from the Kinema sample. The average value of the trichloroacetic acid-soluble nitrogen (TCA-N) content relative to the total nitrogen content of the Kinema samples was 35.3% (s.d.=6.6). The percent liberation of amino acids (ratio of the sum of the free amino acid contents to the sum of the total amino acid contents) of the Kinema samples ranged from 6.0% to 16.5% with an average value of 11.4% (s.d.=4.3). When these values were compared with those of the Thua-nao sample obtained in Thailand and the Natto sample prepared in Japan, a higher TCA-N relative to total nitrogen was observed in the Natto sample. The pattern similarities of free amino acid compositions between the samples were calculated and showed that the samples were classified into 2 groups, the soybean sample and the group of the fermented soybean samples. The positions of the Kinema samples were closer to the position of the Natto sample rather than the Thua-nao sample.