Nutritional Components and Amino Acids in Lentil Varieties

Abstract

Lentil is one of the world’s healthiest foods due to excellent nutritional profile. Protein quality in lentil seeds is strongly influenced by composition of amino acids. In the present research, content of protein and amino acids were determined to identify a total of six lentil varieties (Altintoprak, Cagil, Meyveci, Seyran, Sultan, Yerli kirmizi) which are widely preferred in Turkey. All of the lentil varieties showed statistically significant differences (p<0.01) for the investigated parameters except for phenylalanine and tryptophan. Content ranges of the following basic parameters (%) were: 22.79 (Sultan) – 29.73 (Seyran) for protein; 0.92 (Yerli kirmizi) – 1.49 (Cagil) for methionine and 0.56 (Seyran) – 1.37 (Altintoprak) for tryptophan among genotypes. Consequently, tryptophan was found as limiting amino acid. Results indicated that lentil varieties Cagil and Altintoprak should be considered as promising genotypes due to their high content of essential amino acids. Results of the present study can be used for the future researches which are focused on the desired quality characteristics in lentils.