THE AMERICAN JOI.

RNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION

Vol. 20, No. 12, I)ecember, 1967, pp. 1300-1303

Printed in U.S.A.

Nutritional Value
of Rubber-Seed Protein”2

LAUW TJIN GI0K, M.D.,:i SAMSUDIN, M.D.,4 HUSAINI, B.S.,5

AND IGNATIUS TARWOTJO, M.5.6

T HE SEED of the rubber tree, Hevea MATERIALS AND METHODS

Lirasiliensis, has aroused occasional in- Pie paration of (lie press cake. Because of the
terest as a source of food piotein. The seed! high fat content of the seeds it was necessary to
has a high content of semidrying oil which use a defatted preparation to maintain the
may be used in the l)aint industry, leav- proper relation of fat to protein in the experi-

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ing the press cake as a potential source of mental diets. Expression of the oil wits carried
high-protein food for cattle or sheep. Diffi- out in the peanut oil factory in Bogor, Indo-
culties in collection of the seed, necessity nesia. The first preparation, used in the pre-
liminary animal trial, still contained too much
fos- prompt processing to halt deteriora-
fat. For the second test the following procedure
tion, and spread of a virus disease have
was adopted: The seeds were soaked and cooked
made large scale harvesting of the seed!
as for home preparation, then dried. At the
impractical (1).
factory they were chopped, steamed briefly, and
Rubber seed! is used in their own diet by pressed. The press cake dried and ground.
was
people living on or near the plantations. The fat content was still too high for a diet
If the protein were of good quality this use containing 20% protein so the powdered mate-
might be encouraged. The seeds contain rial was extracted with petroleum ether. The
cyanogenetic glycosides but this disadvan- final product was tested for fat, protein, mois-

tage can be overcome by proper cooking ture, ash, and cyanidle (2). Amino acid analysis
was carried out with the Technicon automatic
methods. The seeds are soaked for at least
recording amino acid analyzer, using the 6-hr
24 hr with several changes of water and
procedure.
then boiled, uflcovere(I, for about half an
Animal experiments. The PER and toxicity
hour. Similar care is necessary in the prep-
tests were (lone according to recommended pro-
aration of cassava.
cedures (3). Casein (Nutritional Biochemicals
Protein quality of dined defatted rubber vitamin-test casein) was usedi as control protein.
seed!s was evaluated by a PER (protein- The control (liet combined casein, 10%; cotton-
efficiency ratio)7 study in rats at three lev- seedi oil, 10%; corn starch, 70%; salt mixture,
els of protein concentration (5, 10, 20% of 4%; alpha cellulose, 5%; amid complete vitamin
the diets). This also served as a test for acute mixture (in corn starch), I %. In the diet con-
toxicity. taining rubber seed an amount of the press
cake to give the required amount of protein
1 From the Research Center of the Institute of was used and amounts of cottonseed oil and corn
Nutrition. Ministry of Health of Indonesia, Bogor. starch adjusted to give the same proportions of
2 Supported in part by National Institutes of fat and! carbohydrates as the control diet. Salt
Health Grant AM-592l.
mixture and complete vitamin mixture were
Deputy I)irector, Research Center. Lecturer,
added in the same amounts as in the control
Department of Pediatrics, University of Indonesia,
(casein) diet.
Djakarta. Staff Member, Research Center. Di-
rector, Academy of Nutrition, Djakarta.
In a preltIiijnar trial both male and female
rats were used and the diets contained 14% in-
gram weight gain stead of the usual 10% fat because of the high
PER=-
grant protein eaten fat content of the press cake.

1300
 N utritional Value of Rubber-Seed Protein 1301

ihe nsain experiment was designed to test TABLE II

toxicity as well as protein value. Control and
Essential (and Related) Amino Acids in
experimental diets containing 5, 10, and 20%
Rubber-Seed Protein in Comparison
protein (with compensating alteration in the
with Some Other Proteins
amount of corn starch) were prepared. The ani-
mals were males, eight to a group, 21 days old, Amino Acid, FAO Rubber Whole Soy-
Maize”
weighing 16-34 g. The weanling rats of this mg/16 g Nitrogen Pattern” Seed Egg” bean”

Indonesian strain were smaller than those used

Isoleucine 4.2 3.1 6.6 5.3 4.7
in PER studies in the United States. The aver-
Leucine 4.8 6.7 8.8 7.7 13.2
age starting weight in each group was between
Lysine 4.2 5.4 6.6 6.3 2.9
26 and 28.5 g: the animals were allowed to eat
Phenylalanine 2.8 3.8 5.8 4.9 4.6
ad libitum. The experiment was continued for Tyrosine 2.8 2.6 5.0 3.2 6.2
4 weeks. Total S-con- 4.2 1.9 5.4 3.2 3.2
taining
RESULTS
Methionine 2.2 0.7 3.1 1 .4 1 .9
Threonine 2.8 2.8 5.0 4.0 4.0
The results of the chemical analyses

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Tryptophan 1.4 1.3 1.7 1 .4 0.6
are shown in Table i. Most significant are
Valine 4.2 6.4 7.4 5.3 5.3
the figures for cyanide which indicate that
the soaking and cooking removed most of Data from FAO report on protein require-
the cyanidie from the seedis. ments (4).

The amino acid composition is given in

Table II. The content of sulfur-containing TABLE III

amino acids, particularly methionine, is Protein Efficiency Ratio of Hevea Seed

low. The other essential amino acids are
Diet Weigh t Gain P ER
at an acceptable level. In the animal tests
the PER of casein was found to be 2.6; the % Casein:
accepted value for casein is 2.5. The pre- 5 21.0± 4.4” 2.3 ± 0.15”
liminas-y trial indicated that the Hevea 10 49.1 ± 2.4 2.6 ± 0.06
20 65.3 ± 1.1 1.6 ± 0.04
pi-otein was of moderate quality, with a
% Hevea seed:
PER of 2.3. The second test gave a slightly
5 5.2 ± 0.6 0.9 ± 0.06
lower figus-e (Table iii). At the 10% level 10 39.0 ± 1.3 2.0 ± 0.06
the PER was 2.0. However, at the 5% 20 55.0 ± 2.5 1.4 ± 0.08
level the Hevea protein was much inferior
“SE.
to casein. The PER of casein was 2.3, only
a little lower than with 10% protein, while
that for the rubber seed was 0.9. same as those of the casein controls. At the

Food! intake of animals receiving 10 and 5% protein level the rubber-seed group ate
20% rubber-seed protein was almost the much less than the controls.
There was no evidence of toxicity of the

TABLE I
rubber seed. At the 20% protein level
(about 60% dined rubber seed in the diet)
Analysis of Rubber-Seed Preparations
food intake, PER, and growth rate all
Press compared favorably with casein at the
Untreated,
on D Cooked, Cake,
Dried Defatted, same level. The PER of casein at the 20%
Basis
Dried
level had decreased since the animals were
Cyanide, mg/lOO g 330 8.9 3.4
approaching normal growth rate.
Protein, % 27.0 34.3
Fat, % 32.3 14.6 COMMENTS
Ash, % 2.4 3.0
The PER of rubber seed was of the
Moisture, ( 3.6 5.7
same order as that of other oil seeds: some-
1302 Lauw et al.

what lower than soya, about equal to pea- Most of the reports on nutritive value of
nut and cottonseed (5). The protein score, rubber seedi in animals are favorable.
31, was low because of the very low con- There is no indication that, properly pre-
tent of methionine. This was reflected in pared, it would not be suitable for hu-
the vei-y poor growth of the rats receiving man consumption. In areas where protein
only 5% of protein. Other essential amino intake is low it may be particularly useful.
acidls wet-e in adequate amounts. The Individuals may gather seeds for their own
highei- levels of lysine and tryptophan use undler conditions in which commercial
wouldi make it a useful supplementary pro- operations are not practical. The high con-
tein to maize. tent of fat is valuable since low-fat intake
The cyanide content of the rubber seed is frequently accompanies low-protein intake.
high, 200 mg/ 100 g of the fresh seeds
tested. Cassava tubers may reach 250 mg SUMMARY

pet- kg (6). Howevei, as with cassava, meth-

The nutritive value of the seed of Hevea

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ods of prepaiation have been devised to
brasiliensis was tested in rats. The PER
remove the poison: soaking to allow enzy-
was 2.0 (casein 2.5). There was no cvi-
matic hydrolysis of the bound cyanide fol-
lowed! by boiling to eliminate the liberated dience of toxicity. The seed offers promise
liydrocyanic acid. The importance of these
as a high-protein food supplement. The
high level of lysine and tryptophan would
precatitions is well understood by the
make it a good companion protein for
PeOl)le who use these foods.
maize. The methionine content is low.
A number of feeding trials of the seed
of Hevea biasiliensis in domestic animals
The authors wish to thank Mr. Muhilal for mak-
have been reported (7-9) some of them
ing the cyanide determination. The amino acid
dating back many years. They indicated anal sis was carried out by Dr. Samsudin in the
generally good results, the press cake com- Philadelphia General Hospital, Philadelphia, Penn-
paring favorably with linseed meal. Ac- sylvania.

cordling to one report (7), sheep did poorly

because they rejected the feed, while cat- REFERENCES

tle did well. Ellett et al. (9) found Hevea I. ECKEY, E. W. Vegetable Fats and Oils. New
meal satisfactory in supporting milk pro- York: Reinhold, 1954, p. 116.
duction in cattle. 2. Official Methods of Analysis of the Association

Rubens de Sequeira et al. (10) investi- of Official Agricultural Chemists (9th ed).
Washington, D.C.: AOAC, 1960, 22.064.
gated the nutritive value of the seed!s for
3. CAMPBELL, J. A. Methodology of Protein Eval-
rats. Their results were less satisfactory uation. Nutr. Doc. R. 10/Add. 37 WHO/FAO/
than those of the present study. They UNICEF, 1961, Appendix B, p. 2.
found that the animals rejected defatted 4. FAO Protein Requirements. Study No. 16, Rome,

meal because of the unpleasant odor and 1957.

5. GYbRGY, P. Protein-rich foods in calorie-protein
taste d!ue to the cyanogenetic glycosides.
malnutrition. Problems of evaluation. Am. J.
When it was heated at 100-105 C for 2 hr Clin. Xutr. 14: 7, 1964.
and! fedl at a level of 50% in the diet the 6. HoLLEMAN, L. %V. J., AND A. ATEN. Processing
rats accepted the food but weight gains of Cassava and Cassava Products in Rural In-

were poor. In biochemical analysis they dust ries. Rome: FAO of the UN, 1956, pp. 10-
II.
found per 100 g of untreated kernels: 450
7. AIJLD, S. J. M. Digestibility experiments with
g thiamine, 2,500 g nicotinic acid, 250 sheep. Para rubber seed cake. 1. Agr. Sci. 5:
g carotene, and tocopherol (no figure 429, 1912-1913.
given). 8. SPRING, F. G., AND F. W. F. DAY. The oil-con-
 Nutritional Value of Rubber-Seed Protein 1303

tent, keeping qualities and commercial possi- technic Institute, Va. Agr. Expt. Sta. 41: 3,
bilities of para rubber seed. Agr. Bull. Federated 1930.
Itfalay States. 6: 231, 1918. 10. DE SEQUEIRA, R., E. PECHNIK AND 0. GLJERNELLI.
9. ELLEIT, W. B., C. W. HOLDAWAY, J. F. EHEART Investigations in applied biochemistry. Quimica
AND L. D. LASTING. Feeding Hevea rubber seed 9: 13, 1955. Taken from: Chem. Abstr. 50: 9339g,
meal for milk production. Tech. Bull. Va. Poly- 1956.

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