Nutritional value of mung bean (Vigna radiata) as effected by cooking and supplementation.

The study was conducted to improve the nutritional value of Mung (Vigna radiata) by supplementation with different kinds of meat. Diets were prepared using raw and cooked Mung and then cooked Mung was supplemented with poultry, mutton and beef at 10, 15, and 20 percent levels. Nutritional value of Mung was determined by chemical analysis as well as by rat assay. Mung had 25 percent protein and minor losses were observed during cooking. It had 1.21 percent lysine which was reduced by 43 percent on cooking. Other amino acids also showed losses during cooking. The Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) of diet containing Mung was significantly reduced on cooking (1.86 vs 1.40). On the contrary cooking resulted in some improvement of Net Protein utilization (NPU) and True Digestibility (TD) of the Mung based diets. Twenty percent level of different meats showed better results in terms of PER, NPU and TD.