Plant proteins. V. The biological value of lucerne and lucerne supplemented by cystine in sheep

Abstract

1. By means of the balance-sheet method, it has been shown that the biological value of lucerne protein for sheep is 60 and that the addition of cysteine does not effect this biological value. 2. The apparent digestibility of lucerne protein has been found to be 75 per cent. and the true digestibility 91 per cent. The addition of cystine depresses the apparent digestibility and to a slight extent the true digestibility, the average figures being 61 and 80 per cent. respectively. 3. It has been shown that cystine is not a limiting factor in lucerne protein when fed to mature sheep.