The biological values of protein

Abstract

IN the previous paper of this series [Boas-Fixsen and Jackson, 1932] experiments were described in which the biological values of the proteins contained in various wheat and maize products were determined by the "balance sheet" method, using adult rats. These experiments revealed no difference in value, for main- tenance of nitrogenous equilibrium, between the proteins of whole wheat and whole maize. It was pointed out that this result had an important bearing on the theory attributing pellagra, which in its epidemic form is closely associated with the consumption of maize, to an amino-acid deficiency.