Studies on protein fractionation in seed coat, embryo, cotyledons and whole
seed were made to observe th e differences, if any, between chickpea and pigeonpea.
Results indicated th a t globulin was the major fraction o f embryo and cotyledons o f these
legumes. Seed-coat nitrogen was observed to be mostly comprised o f nonprotein nitrogen
and glutelin fractions and thus differed from other components in both chickpea and
pigeonpea. The albumin fraction o f cotyledons o f both crops had the highest concentration
o f sulphur amino acids, methionine and cystine. Glutelin contained a considerably
higher concentration o f methionine and cystine than did globulin in chickpea and pigeonpea.
This suggests th a t lines with higher glutelin should be identified to improve their
protein quality. The amino acid compositions o f different seed components did not
show large differences between these two pulse crops
