Biological evaluation of protein quality of barley

Protein quality of barley cultivars, namely BH-331 (hulled), DL-88 (hullless) and Dolma (hullless) having 2.18, 4.60 and 6.23% β-glucan content, respectively, was biologically evaluated by rat growth and nitrogen balance studies. Feeding of BH-331 barley diet resulted in marked decrease of food intake, body weight gain, food efficiency ratio, protein efficiency ratio, nitrogen absorption, biological value, net protein utilization and utilizable protein. The diet containing Dolma cultivar (hullless and high β-glucan) caused by intermediate effect on all the protein quality parameters. DL-88 (hullless) gave better results than BH-331 and Dolma. Therefore, β-glucan content may not be affecting protein quality parameters in barley. However, hulled barley (BH-331) showed adverse effects on biological parameters in which husk seems to contribute towards unpalatability of the diet, thereby leading to a reduced food intake and other related parameters.