Protein quality traits of vegetable and field peas: varietal differences.

Four high yielding varieties of field (Rachna and RFP4) and vegetable peas (Bonnivielle and Arkal) were studied for their protein quality. Crude protein and true protein content of all four pea varieties varied from 19.5 to 20.6 percent and 18.7 to 19.8 percent, respectively. Non protein nitrogen formed only 3.94 to 4.84 percent of total nitrogen. Globulins were the major fractions followed by albumins and glutelins. All the four varieties of peas had similar methionine and tryptophan content. Lysine content of four pea varieties ranged from 7.56 to 9.65 g per 16 g of N. Cooking brought about an increase in in vitro protein digestibility of peas by 10 percent. The sodium dodecyl polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of total protein revealed the presence of 22-25 bands with some difference in banding pattern of all four varieties. Some differences were observed in banding patterns of globulin and albumin of all four varieties, suggesting that composition of protein of pea varieties differed.