Relationship between nonprotein nitrogen and total nitrogen in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seed

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a crop of economic importance and also an important source of protein in the diet of people in India as well as in other countries. Total protein content in the diet of people in the developing countries deserves special attention as large segments of people in these areas are reported to suffer from protein-calorie malnutrition. In the normal procedure for estimating protein intake, nitrogen content is obtained by the standard micro-Kjeldahl method and a factor is used to convert the figure into protein percentage. In this process, it is tactitly assumed that all the nitrogen is associated with the protein. But, in fact, this is not true. Therefore, any large variation in NPN content would affect the estimated protein of the sample and would consequently affect the estimated protein intake'in the diet. However, some of the NPN probably consists of amino acids and peptides which would be utilized. Attempts have been made to determine NPN in various crops (Bell, 1963; Boulter and Davis, 1968: Bhatty, 1972; Millerd, 1972). This study was conducted to determine the variation, if any, that might exist in chickpea samples and to identify the relationship between NPN and crude protein nitrogen in chickpea