The effect of mixing different sources of vegetable proteins from legumes in the preparation of infant weaning foods was investigated. Melon, cowpea and soya as sole protein sources or as a mixture were fed to 60 albino rats. A milk powder-based commercial product (Cerelac) was used as control diet. The mixture of the vegetable protein diet compared favorably with the control diet in terms of growth rate, protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein ratio (NPR) and also ensured optimum nitrogen content in liver, kidney and muscle tissues. In contrast the use of individual protein sources failed to support satisfactory growth and were inferior to those in animals fed with the control or mixed diets. It was thus concluded that in the developing countries an application of such a mixture of vegetable proteins may be suitable in the preparation of weaning foods.

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The first series of radiocarbon dates to be obtained from a deep shaft-and-chamber tomb of the type restricted in Mesoamerica to parts of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima in western Mexico ranges from 2230 +/- 100 years to 1710 +/- 80 years. Examination of the evidence indicates that for the present a date equivalent to A.D. 250 should be accepted for at least one phase, possibly a late phase, of the shaft tomb culture and for the hollow, polychrome figurines associated with the tombs.

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