Abstract:
The protein composition of marama beans, an indigenous African oilseed legume, was
determined in comparison with soya beans. Marama bean protein contained a
substantial amount of tyrosine compared with soya bean protein. It was slightly richer
in proline than soya. By SDS-PAGE, marama protein contained fewer protein bands
compared with soya. The patterns of these bands in marama under non-reducing and
reducing conditions were similar, suggesting an absence of disulphide bonds. The
vicilin (7S) and acidic 11S subunits seemed to be absent in marama. This is most
unusual in legume proteins. Only a major basic legumin (11S) (20 kDa), medium (63
kDa) and high (148 kDa) molecular weight protein bands were separated for marama.
Most polypeptides in the marama proteome map are basic compared with soya. Only
one polypeptide match was tentatively identified compared with soya. Marama
protein composition is very different from that of soya.
