Nutritional and Biochemical Studies on Irradiated Broad Beans (Giza-2)(Vicia Faba)

Broad bean is an important source of dietary protein in Egypt. High losses due to insect infestation occur after each harvest. Radiation processing is an excellent alternative method which could be used to combat these losses. The beans were irradiated at doses of 2.5,5, 10 and 20 kGy. The effects of treatments were investigated on trypsin inhibitor, hemagglutination activity, in vitro protein digestibility, in vivo protein efficiency ratio (PER) and short-term rats feeding. A dose of 20 kGy significantly caused a great reduction in trypsin inhibitor (by 67.12%) and hemagglutination activity (by 87.5%) in broad bean, whereas its in vitro protein digestibility increased from 67.15 to 80, 68% and PER also increased from 1.01 to 1.22. The results of short term of rat feeding experiments indicated that the growth of young rats given raw or irradiated beans at 2.5 and 5 kGy was much lower than that of rats given diet based upon casein or irradiated beans up to 20 kGy. Feeding raw and processed beans at 2.5 and 5 kGy, caused a significant increase in the relative weight of pancreas while feeding irradiated beans at 10 and 20 kGy normalized the relative pancreas weight. No changes have been observed in relative weight for stomach, heart, liver, spleen, kidney and lungs in rats fed casein diet as compared with those fed raw and irradiated beans up to 20 kGy for 8 weeks