(P20-043-24) Legume Protein Digestibility in Indian Infants

Objectives: To measure true IAA digestibility of mung bean in Indian infants, using the dual stable isotope tracer method.

Methods: Apparently healthy children 9-12 months old, on semisolid complementary feeding, were recruited. Exclusion criteria included recent gastroenteritis, antibiotic use in the past 4 weeks and history of food allergies. After anthropometry,  the children were fed a freshly prepared rice-lentil meal (rice and ²H labelled whole mung bean). U-¹³C spirulina (10 mg/kg) was homogenously mixed into the meal as a reference protein of known digestibility. The meal was administered in a plateau feeding protocol over 5 hours, with an initial priming meal and hourly single portion mini-meals. Baseline and 5.5 hour plasma samples were analysed for their ¹³C and ²H-IAA enrichments by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography–pyrolysis–isotope ratio mass spectrometry respectively. For each IAA, the ratios of their plasma and food ¹³C and ²H enrichments were used to calculate digestibility.

Results: The mean age and length-for-age z scores of the 6 children (6, male) were 11.1 ±1.1 months and -0.2 ± 1.2 respectively. The mung bean test meal provided an average of 204.8 ± 33 kcal and contained 4.6 ± 0.7 g of protein. Samples are being analyzed and digestibility data will be presented.

Conclusions: This study will provide IAA digestibility of mung bean protein at 1 year of age from which Digestible Indispensible Amino Acid Scores can be calculated for common complementary foods. This might be particularly relevant as the ontogeny of indispensable amino-acid (IAA) digestibility is unknown at 1 y of age, particularly in a LMIC setting. This can guide the identification of suitable dietary adjustments to meet infant requirements for optimum growth and development.

Funding Sources: This research was supported by the Indian Department of Biotechnology and by a Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Clinical Research Centre Grant.