Blue maize and its proteins

I’ve only just subscribed to the INFOODS Electronic Discussion Group, so I’m not sure how active it is, but two interesting queries came in yesterday, so I’m hopeful. One was about how much bioavailable iron there may be in the juice you get when cooking beans. The other is about infraspecific differences in nutritional quality, which is a topic close to our agrobiodiversity-fueled heart. I’ll take the liberty of quoting the query in full, in case any of our readers has an answer:

Does anyone have the amino acid profile (PHE specifically) for blue corn? Looking at the USDA info for corn flour, whole-grain, *white* and corn flour, whole-grain, *yellow* they both have the same amount of protein (6.93 gm) and PHE (340 mg) per 100 gm. The *blue* corn whole-grain flour, however, has 8.75 gm pro/100 gm and the amino acid values are not listed.

I found a journal article that states blue corn is a more complete source of protein than either yellow or white and has elevated levels of lysine and tryptophan as compared to the other 2 (~0.8 mg/gm more LYS; doesn’t say amount for TRP). Could the additional protein be coming from the higher LYS and TRP and the PHE be the same as white/yellow or might the % PHE be significantly different based on percentages/amounts of the other amino acids?

Regards,

Belkys Prado RD CSP LD
Metabolic Nutritionist
St Joseph’s Children’s Hospital of Tampa
Tampa, FL

Read more at Agriculture Biodiversity Blog