Evaluation of cottonseed meals prepared by extraction with acetone‐hexane‐water mixtures

Abstract

Abstract Eleven cottonseed meals have been prepared by batch extractions of a given lot of cottonseed with various acetone‐hexane‐water mixtures using several different extraction schedules. These meals, together with eight meals of commercial origin and a commercial soybean meal, have been subjected to chemical evaluation and assayed for protein quality using the growing chick as a test animal. In general the acetone‐hexane‐water meals were superior to the commercial cottonseed meals for promoting the growth of the chicks and, considering all the meals, a linear correlation was obtained between the logarithm of the weight gains and the available lysine contents of the meals. The free and total gossypol contents of the cottonseed meals appeared to have little or no influence on the growth rates.