Sunflower amino acid availability

Sundower Seed. Compared to the FAO/WHO/UNU recommendations for essential amino acids, sunflower proteins are low in lysine, leucine, and threonine for 2 to 5-year-olds but meet all the requirements for adults (see Table 3). There are no principal antinutritional factors known to exist in raw sunflower seed (35). However, moist heat treatment increases the growth rate of rats, thereby suggesting the presence of heat-sensitive material responsible for growth inhibitions in raw meal (72). Oxidation of chlorogenic acid may involve reaction with the S-amino group of lysine, thus further reducing the amount of available lysine. 

---