All‐Vegetable Protein Mixtures for Human Feeding. VIII. Biological Testing of INCAP Vegetable Mixture Nine in Rats a, b

SUMMARY The nutritive value of INCAP Vegetable Mixture 9 in young and protein‐depleted adult rats was studied. This mixture contains 28% lime‐treated corn, 28% sorghum grain, 38% cottonseed flour, 3% kikuyu leaf meal, and 3% torula yeast. When Mixture 9, skim milk, casein, or meat flour was fed combined with different amounts of starch to give a range of dietary protein levels, the nutritive value of the vegetable mixture for rats compared favorably with that of animal proteins at the higher levels of protein intake. Both young growing rats and protein‐depleted rats were used. The growth response was generally less to the vegetable mixture at low protein levels than when animal proteins were fed at the same dietary level, presumably because of a lysine deficiency also observed in previous chick trials. When the corn and sorghum combination was replaced in the mixture by processed corn, sorghum, rice, whole wheat, or oats, no significant changes were noted in the nutritive value. Furthermore, roasting, boiling, and lime‐treating corn and sorghum did not affect the nutritive value of the mixture.