Studies of Amino Acid Supplementation and Amino Acid Availability with Oats

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Abstract
In growth studies on rats fed oat diets supplemented with amino acids, lysine was found to be the primary amino acid deficiency in oat protein. Supplements of lysine, methionine and threonine were required to obtain a rapid rate of growth. Rats fed the oat diet supplemented with lysine, methionine and threonine grew as well as rats fed a diet containing 20% of casein. Reducing the level of oats in the diet from 85 to 70% did not affect the growth rate when the three amino acids were added to the diet. At 55% of oats in the diet the growth rate was reduced and either histidine or tryptophan became limiting. Studies of the availability of the three limiting amino acids of oat protein showed that the threonine was not as available to the rat as the nitrogen of the diet. Lysine and methionine were found to be approximately as available as nitrogen.