Amino acid composition
In mucilage-reduced, oil-free camelina, meal protein, essential amino
acids (His, Ile, Leu, Lys, Thr, Trp, Val, Met+Cys, Phe+Tyr) represented
~40% of total amino acids (Table 1) and were within the
range of values reported by Li et al. (2014) and Zubr (2003). Lysine,
which is often the limiting amino acid in meal derived from crucifer
seeds, including camelina (Russo and Reggiani, 2015), was at 5%.
Camelina meal had a sulphur-containing amino acid (Met + Cys) level of
5% (Table 1), which is comparable to canola meal (Wanasundara, 2011).
The level of branched-chain amino acids was ~15%,
indicating there is potential for the use of camelina proteins beyond
animal feed applications, such as in nutritional supplements.