The seeds of 15 Polish pea varieties contained from 221 to 281 g/kg crude protein with a mean of 240.2 +/- 3.5 g/kg dry matter (DM). The weight of 1000 pea seeds, depending on cultivar, ranged from 209.4 to 280.4 g. No interactive effect between the seed mass and the crude protein content was detected. The highest significant negative correlation between weight of seeds and dietary fiber content was r = -0.815XX. The content of dietary fiber ranged from 161.5 to 209.9 g/kg with a mean of 187.9 +/- 3.8 g/kg. The mean gross energy of seeds was 18.1 +/- 0.28 MJ/kg. Amino acid composition of all the cultivars was similar, which was indicated by a similar index of essential amino acids (EAAI) of about 69.7 +/- 0.25. Trypsin inhibitor content in seeds was from 2.83 to 7.32 TIU/mg and the content of phytates ranged from 6.32 to 13.36 mg/g DM. The mean content of polyphenols and flavanols in analysed pea cultivars was 0.92 and 0.46 mg/g, respectively. In the seeds of most cultivars little or no pyrimidine glucosides, i.e. vicine and convicine, were found. The overall mean oligosaccharide content was 64.3 +/- 1.8 g/kg, of which alpha-galactosides were 46.8 +/- 2.0 g/kg. The antinutritional factor content was not significantly correlated with protein content. No statistical relationship was found between crude protein and dietary fiber content. It was observed that pea cultivars with higher trypsin inhibitor activity contained significantly less flavanols (r = -0.607X) and alpha-galactosides (r = -0.617X). The varieties with higher seed content of dietary fiber contained the highest amount of alpha-galactosides (r = 0.514X).

Removing of the seed coat by mechanic separation of fraction crushed yellow lupin var. Juno seeds increased the protein content from 41.6 to 52.4% and decreased dietary fibre content from 28.4 to 15.9% as compared to whole seeds. The chemical composition, the content of alkaloids (0.15%), dietary fibre (15.9%) and a-galactosides (11.66%) of hulled seeds was similar to the cotyledons obtained by manual dehulling. Due to a higher content of some essential amino acids, mainly tryptophan and lysine in the seed coat, the hulling lowered the value of EAAI index from 60.0 in whole seeds to 58.9 in hulled seeds and 56.6 in cotyledons. Substitution of whole lupin-meals with hulled seeds in rat diets did not increase digestibility of crude protein (86.8 and 86.2%, respectively) or the protein efficiency ratio (2.02 and 2.05, respectively).

The effect of faba bean hull fibre on utilization of Fe, Zn and Cu was studied. The degree of binding these elements by the hull fibre was measured in vitro and their retention was determined in rats fed on diets without hulls (control) or with hulls either extracted with acetone to remove phenolic compounds (He) or extracted and incubated in a solution of sulphates of the elements under study (Hi). Incubation performed in vitro in conditions simulating those in the digestive tract (37°C, pH 2 for 5 h followed by pH 5 for 1 h) increased Fe, Zn and Cu content in the hulls by 36.6, 22.4 and 5.4 mg/1 OOg, respectively. The amount of fibre-bound elements in the experimental Hi diet corresponded to 40 % of the amount provided by the control diet.In the animals fed during 4 weeks on the control and experimental diets the total body Zn content was similar in all groups (4.5-4.6 mg/rat). The Fe and Cu content was smaller both in the rats receiving extracted and incubated hulls as compared with control animals (8.26 and 7.58 vs 8.59 and 0.51 and 0.48 vs 0.55 mg/rat, respectively). Small differences between the groups seem to indicate that in spite of the high sorption capacity of faba bean hull fibre in vitro, its effect on utilization of Fe, Zn and Cu in vivo was relatively small.