Tempehs produced from cotyledons of bean, cowpea and
chickpea seeds were biologically and chemically evaluated. Results of
biological assays, using male albino rats, indicated that tempeh produced
from cotyledons of chickpea gave the highest percentage of weight gain
after 10 days (75.07%), net protein utilization (72.31%), net protein ratio
(5.31%) and digestibility coefficient (92.12%). Also tempeh produced
from chickpea gave the highest biological value (78.50%), while the
lowest value was noted in tempeh produced from bean (73.65%). Total
essential amino acid content of tempeh produced from bean (2.917 g/g
nitrogen) was higher than that produced from each of cowpea (2.641 g/g
nitrogen) and chickpea (2.446 g/g nitrogen). Furthermore, total essential
amino acid content of tempeh produced from bean and cowpea were
higher compared with raw cotyledons, while was lower in chickpea.