• Journal of Life Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.192-197
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• 1997

Italian ryegrass, red clover, sorghum, and alfalfa were used for leaf protein preparation. Fresh leaves were pulped in the presence or absence of a reducing agent(sodium ascorbate or NaHSO$_{4}$) and green juice was heated and washed with acetone. The biological evaluation of leaf proteins was carried out by the growth method with male rats weighing about 45g. Italian ryegrass, red clover, and sorghum were brown when leaves were pulped in the absence of a reducing agent. On the other hand, alfalfa had neither o-diphenolics nor polyphenolase, and hence the alfalfa leaf protein did not brown during pulping ever in the absence of a reducing agent. The brown leaf protein from Italian ryegrass hd lower digestibility than the leaf protein protected from browning, although there were no difference in growth-promoting effect and protein efficiency ratio(PER)between the two leaf protein. The feeding of brown leaf protein from red clover resulted in the lowering of weight gain, digestibility, and PER, and all the measurement including diet intake were lowered by feeding the brown leaf protein from sorghum. In the case of alfalfa leaf protein, there were no difference in nutritional quality between the two leaf protein made with and without an attempt to prevent browning. The results mentioned above indicate that the occurrence of phenolics and polyphemolase in a crop in responsible for the browning of leaf protein and that the browning of leaf protein caused its nutritional impairment.