Nutritive studies on some raw and prepared leguminous seeds commonly used in the Arab Republic of Syria.

1. The proximate analysis of raw Syrian lentils (Lens esculentus), variety red chick pea (Cicer arietinum) variety balady, has been made. The protein content of the two raw seeds were 23 and 22 g% for lentils and chick peas, respectively. Ethereal extract, fiber, ash, calcium, phosphorus and iron content of the two raw seeds have been also assayed. 2. The levels of most of the amino acids were also estimated in the raw and cooked seeds. It was found that tryptophan- and sulphur-containing amino acids were the most limiting ones. Cooking the seeds by the same methods commonly used in Syria resulted in the loss of most of the amino acids, with the exception of lysine and tryptophan which were slightly increased. 3. Trypsin inhibitors and saponins were detected in the raw seeds. Haemagglutinins were present in raw lentils only. Cooking the seeds destroyed the trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinins and did not affect the saponins. 4. The net protein utilization of whole lentils and chick peas were 38 and 53, respectively. Decortication of lentils or cooking without decortication has no effect on the NPU values. Cooking the decorticated lentil seeds raised its NPU values from 38 to 56. Cooking chick peas resulted in a slight increase in their NPU. Supplementation of the raw and treated seeds with methionine and tryptophan raised its NPU values markedly.