Amino Acid Balance of Proteins of Maize and Sorghum

In maize, as in sorghum, prolamin is a major protein fraction and is responsible for the poor biological value of the protein. Prolamin contains excessive quantities of glutamic acid, proline and leucine and is deficient in cysteine, methionine, lysine and tryptophan. The leucine to isoleucine ratio in this fraction is greater than four. Albumin and globulin fractions of sorghum have a blanaced amino acid pattern. The quality of proteins in these grains is thus inversely proportional to the prolamin content. New varieties of maize containing opaque and fluory genes showed balanced amino acid composition with high lysine concentration and a low leucine to isoleucine ratio. It is suggested that breeding for low prolamin content in the case of sorghum would yield valuable results.