The effects of feed processing, pea cultivar and their interaction on the nutritional value of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) for poultry were evaluated in regard to its apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn), apparent protein digestibility (APD), and rate and extent of starch digestion. Amino acid sparing as affected by the rate of starch digestion was studied in laying hens and broiler chickens. Also, the effects of feeding a slowly digested starch (SDS) from pea on performance and metabolism of broiler–breeder pullets were investigated. The first objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of screen–hole size, cold pelleting, and pre–pelleting conditioning temperature on nutrient digestibility of pea. There was no interaction between dietary treatments on all studied parameters. Small hammer–mill screen–hole size (3.2–mm) increased AMEn, APD, and extent of starch digestion values compared with coarse screen–hole size (6.4–mm). The AMEn and extent of protein digestion were not affected by cold pelleting, but the site of protein digestion was affected. In contrast, cold pelleting increased the rate and extent of starch digestion. Pre–pelleting conditioning temperature affected AMEn of pea in a quadratic fashion but had no positive effect on starch digestibility. The 70°C of pre–pelleting conditioning temperature maximized pea AMEn. Increasing pre–pelleting conditioning temperature decreased APD in a linear fashion. The second objective of this research was to study the effects of feed processing, pea cultivar and their interaction on AMEn, APD, and rate and extent of starch digestion. In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted. An in vitro procedure simulating the gastric and small intestine conditions of chickens was developed to predict the rate and extent of starch digestion as affected by pea cultivar and sieve–hole size (0.5–, 1.0–, 2.0–mm). The rate and extent of starch digestion of cereal grain samples (barley, corn, and wheat) was also compared to pea starch. No interactions were found between pea cultivar and sieve–hole size on the kinetics of starch digestion. Pea cultivar affected the rate and extent of starch digestion. The small sieve–hole size in the in vitro assay resulted in a higher rate and extent of starch digestion. Pea starch was slowly digested in comparison with cereal grains. The in vivo experiment confirmed that fine grinding and pelleting improves AMEn and APD. Cultivar effects on AMEn and APD were observed, but no interaction was found between pea cultivar and feed processing. The third objective of this research was to investigate whether feeding SDS from pea would have sparing effect on amino acid utilization in chickens. In the first experiment, the effects of three levels of pea inclusion 0, 150, 300 g/kg on the response of laying hens to three levels of lysine intake (700, 780, and 860 mg per day) were evaluated using performance and production criteria. This experiment revealed that pea inclusion up to 300 g/kg in laying hen diets was well tolerated by laying hens and improved energy retention as indicated by increased body weight and egg weight. However, this experiment did not confirm the hypothesis that SDS from pea spared amino acids for laying hens. The second experiment investigated the interaction between SDS derived from pea and amino acid levels on the performance and carcass quality of broiler chickens. Six levels of pea inclusion (0, 150, 300, 450, 600, and 750 g/kg) and two levels of amino acids (100 and 85% of Ross × Ross 308 requirement) were examined in a broiler trial (0 – 35 d). The maximum level of pea inclusion recommended in diets increased with broiler age, but the effect of SDS from pea on amino acid sparing could not be confirmed. In the third experiment, the effects of feeding SDS from pea on growth performance and metabolism of broiler breeder pullets were investigated. Body weight and uniformity of pullets fed pea–based diet were similar to that of a wheat–based diet. Target body weight and uniformity of pullets were not affected by feeding a diet containing 890 g/kg of pea. Mean blood glucose levels and relative liver weight were markedly lower in broiler pullets fed pea–based diet compared with those fed a wheat–based diet. In conclusion, feed processing independently had a significant effect on the availability of pea nutrients. Pea is a good source of both energy and protein and that it can be partially or completely included to replace wheat and soybean meal in poultry diets. However, the effect of SDS on amino acid sparing could not be confirmed. Further research is needed to examine other feed processing techniques, pea cultivars, level of inclusion, and to understand other metabolism responses to feeding SDS from pea.

The use of herbicides in cropping systems is routine in western Canada as is the practice of rotating crops between cereals, oilseeds and pulse crops. Often, herbicides that are appropriate one year in the crop rotation are not compatible with the following crop. Additionally, certain herbicides are designed to target certain enzyme pathways that can interfere with amino acid synthesis. These pathways also exist in the microbial community, including Rhizobium species. Rhizobia have a unique symbiotic relationship with legumes. In return for a carbon source, rhizobia not only fix atmospheric dinitrogen (N2) for the plant, but also can increase soil N reserves for the following year. With herbicides targeting amino acid synthesis in both plants and microbes, there is a possibility that N2 fixation may be inhibited by the application of certain herbicides.<p> This project was designed to examine possible negative effects of herbicide application on N2 fixation in field pea (Pisum sativum L.) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The study included field, growth chamber and laboratory experiments in which the effects of pre- and post-emergent herbicides, as well as herbicide residues in soil were examined.<p> In the field experiments, some early season measurements suggested that herbicide application had a negative impact on various growth and N2 fixation parameters. However, as the season progressed, plants recovered from early herbicide damage and N2 fixation ultimately was relatively unaffected. Growth chamber experiments similarly revealed that N2 fixation was largely unaffected by herbicide application when the application rates were relatively low (i.e., at rates intended to simulate partial herbicide breakdown, and thus lower than the recommended field rate). Although, N2 fixation was suppressed where high rates of herbicide (i.e., greater than recommended field rate) were applied, the efficiency of the rhizobia to fix N2, (i.e., the amount of N2 fixed per unit nodule mass), was unaffected. This along with a laboratory experiment which monitored growth of rhizobia in vitro, confirmed that rhizobia were not directly affected by the herbicides used in this study and that overall N2 fixation was not inhibited directly by the application of these herbicides. It was concluded that any negative impact on N2 fixation caused by herbicides used in this study, was related to the impact of the herbicide on crop growth, and was not due to any direct effects of the herbicide on the rhizobia.

The focus of this research was to develop a plant-based microcapsule for flax oil by complex coacervation. Complex coacervation involves the electrostatic attraction between two polymers of opposing charges. Specifically, the research aimed to: a) identify the ideal biopolymer and solvent conditions required for complex coacervation involving pea protein isolate (PPI) and gum Arabic (GA); b) understand the functional behaviour of PPI-GA complexes as food and biomaterial ingredients; and c) develop methodologies for encapsulating flax oil within PPI-polysaccharide capsules. Complex coacervation between PPI-GA was found to be optimized at a biopolymer weight mixing ratio of 2:1 in the absence of salt. The functional behaviours of the optimized biopolymer mixture were then investigated as a function of pH (4.30-2.40) within a region dominated by complex coacervation. Emulsion stability was found to be greater for PPI-GA mixture systems relative to PPI alone at pH values between 3.10 and 4.00; emulsions produced under one-step emulsification exhibited higher stability compared to those of two-step emulsification at all pH values. Foam expansion was independent of both biopolymer content and pH, whereas foam stability improved for the mixed system between pH 3.10 and 4.00. The solubility minimum was broadened relative to PPI at more acidic pH values. These findings suggested that the admixture of PPI and GA under complexing conditions could represent a new food and/or biomaterial ingredient, and has potential as an encapsulating agent. Two encapsulation processes were employed in this research: high speed mixing (two-step emulsification) and low speed mixing (one-step emulsification). Flax oil capsules formed using the gelatin-GA mixture (as control) under high speed mixing exhibited low moisture content, water activity and surface oil, and afforded adequate protection against oxidation relative to free oil over a 25 d storage period. The PPI-GA mixture failed to produce acceptable capsules using either high or low speed mixing. In contrast, PPI-alginate capsules were produced and exhibited similar chemical properties as gelatin-GA capsules, except with lower encapsulated flax oil content (30% vs. 50% w/w). However, oxidative stability may adversely affected by the low speed mixing condition during encapsulation.

Trace amines (TAs), tryptamine, tyramine, octopamine, and beta-phenylethylamine, named for their low endogenous concentrations in mammals, are related to the classical monoamine transmitters, but have been understudied and thought of as false transmitters. They share structural, physiological, pharmacological, and metabolic similarities with the monoamines, including synthesis by the aromatic-L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) enzyme. In 2001, a new class of receptors preferentially activated by the TAs, termed trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs), was discovered establishing a mechanism for TA actions independent of classic monoaminergic mechanisms. While the TAs and some of their receptors are present in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), their physiologic role remains uncertain. I hypothesized that the TAs are found intrinsically in the spinal cord, and that they are able to modulate spinal neural networks. Using immunohistochemistry, numerous spinal neurons were identified that express AADC, TAs, and TAARs. Similar results were seen for AADC and TAAR1 with in situ hybridization. The most consistent observation was for labeling D cells associated with the central canal and in motoneurons. Overall, these results provided evidence for the presence of an anatomical substrate onto which the TAs could have intrinsic biological actions in the spinal cord. Using exogenous application of the TAs in the isolated spinal cord in vitro, and in vivo in the mid-thoracic chronically spinalized, I showed that the TAs could induce rhythmic locomotor-like activity. TA injection-induced hindlimb motor rhythms observed in chronic spinalized animals, supports TA spinal actions independent of the descending monoaminergic systems. In the presence of NMDA, TA applications recruited a variety of rhythmic motor patterns in the isolated spinal cord. This ranged from locomotor activity indistinguishable from 5-HT/NMDA induced locomotion to complex patterns including, an episodic form of locomotion where there were locomotor bouts with intervening quiescent periods. TA actions of pattern generating circuits had slower kinetics of activation than 5-HT and NA, were attenuated in the presence of monoamine transport inhibitors, and had increased intracellular labeling when incubated in a nominally Na+-free solution. Together these results suggest that the TAs require transport into neurons to exert their actions, and that transport occurs by Na+-dependent monoamine transporters as well as Na+-independent transporters. Finally, I used the in vitro isolated spinal cord with attached hindlimbs to record electromyographic (EMG) activity from various hindlimb muscles to compare the relationship between the TAs and serotonin (5-HT) evoked motor coordination and to examine the ability of the TAs to modulate ongoing 5-HT and NMDA locomotor-like activity. The TAs produced both the continuous and episodic patterns on muscles as observed in ventral root recordings, but EMG recordings provided more detailed insight into specific muscle actions. The TAs also generally increased both frequency and amplitude of ongoing 5-HT locomotor frequency, with tyramine and octopamine also particularly able to alter 5-HT motor coordination patterns.

No description available.

Six field pea (Pisum sativum) varieties from five different growing locations in Saskatchewan in the 2006 and 2007 growing years were analyzed to determine the effect of genotype, environment and year on the total dietary fibre, insoluble dietary fibre, soluble dietary fibre, total phenolic content, simple phenolic content and antioxidant activities. Samples were analyzed for dietary fibre using the enzymatic-gravimetric method of fibre analysis in accordance to the AACC method 32-05. Growing location had a very significant effect (p<0.0001) on the IDF, SDF and TDF content. Genotype had a strong effect (p<0.0001) on both IDF and TDF while having no significant effect (p=0.4556) on SDF content. Crop year also displayed a significant effect on SDF and TDF (p<0.0001) while having a smaller effect on IDF content (p=0.0139). Green varieties yielded significantly higher IDF (p=0.0041) and TDF (p=0.0028) than yellow varieties. Significant genotype x location (0.0155) and location x year (p=0.0002) interaction terms were also observed for TDF. The total phenolic contents were assessed using the Folin-Ciocalteu method of total phenolic content (TPC) analysis, while the contents of 10 individual simple phenolic acids were assessed using reversed-phase UPLC. A significant genotype, environment, and genotype by environment (G x E) interaction effect on the TPC was observed. The seed coat colour and growing season did not show a significant effect on the TPC. The UPLC analysis showed that ferulic acid comprised the majority of the phenolic content of the field pea samples. There was also a genotype, seed coat colour, location, growing season and G x E effect on the total simple phenolic acid content. As well, a modified microplate method for antioxidant activity using the free radical DPPH was assessed against the conventional cuvette method based system. Both methods showed that genotype (p<0.05) and location (p<0.05) had a significant effect on antioxidant activity. A larger, significant effect was seen in the genotype by environment (G x E) interaction (p<0.0001) in the 2007 and 2008 growing years. Growing year did not have a significant on antioxidant activity. Although there was some variation in the resulting AOA values between the two methods, these differences were found not to be statistically significant by means of a folded F-Test (p < 0.05), and the AOA between the two methods was highly correlated (R² = 0.8866). This indicates that a microplate may be used in place of cuvettes to determine AOA using the DPPH free radical to increase testing speed while reducing the amount of sample and reagent used in testing. The research performed on the influence of genotype and environment could potentially allow plant breeders, food scientists and nutraceutical manufacturers to manipulate field pea genotypes and growing conditions to attain an ideal nutritional profile for use in functional foods and nutraceuticals.

The addition of pea fibre to wheat bread supports the growing trend of improving health through diet. Various evaluation tools (bread scoring, C-cell, texture profile analysis, and ultrasound) were used to monitor the sensory and mechanical quality of air bubbles in bread. Different pea fibre particle sizes (250, 125, 180, 90 μm) were added at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 g/serving into a bread formulation. Improvements in specific loaf volume were observed when water absorption was optimized. Adequate water absorption mitigated the high dough viscosity effect of pea fibre. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay was used to measure antioxidant activity of pea fibre. All particle sizes of pea fibres had substantially greater antioxidant scavenging ability compared to wheat flour. The DPPH scavenging activity of pea fibre approached that of ascorbic acid by the end of the assay. Fibre-enriched bread had higher antioxidant activity compared to that of the control bread.

Six field pea (Pisum sativum) varieties from five different growing locations in Saskatchewan in the 2006 and 2007 growing years were analyzed to determine the effect of genotype, environment and year on the total dietary fibre, insoluble dietary fibre, soluble dietary fibre, total phenolic content, simple phenolic content and antioxidant activities. Samples were analyzed for dietary fibre using the enzymatic-gravimetric method of fibre analysis in accordance to the AACC method 32-05. Growing location had a very significant effect (p<0.0001) on the IDF, SDF and TDF content. Genotype had a strong effect (p<0.0001) on both IDF and TDF while having no significant effect (p=0.4556) on SDF content. Crop year also displayed a significant effect on SDF and TDF (p<0.0001) while having a smaller effect on IDF content (p=0.0139). Green varieties yielded significantly higher IDF (p=0.0041) and TDF (p=0.0028) than yellow varieties. Significant genotype x location (0.0155) and location x year (p=0.0002) interaction terms were also observed for TDF. The total phenolic contents were assessed using the Folin-Ciocalteu method of total phenolic content (TPC) analysis, while the contents of 10 individual simple phenolic acids were assessed using reversed-phase UPLC. A significant genotype, environment, and genotype by environment (G x E) interaction effect on the TPC was observed. The seed coat colour and growing season did not show a significant effect on the TPC. The UPLC analysis showed that ferulic acid comprised the majority of the phenolic content of the field pea samples. There was also a genotype, seed coat colour, location, growing season and G x E effect on the total simple phenolic acid content. As well, a modified microplate method for antioxidant activity using the free radical DPPH was assessed against the conventional cuvette method based system. Both methods showed that genotype (p<0.05) and location (p<0.05) had a significant effect on antioxidant activity. A larger, significant effect was seen in the genotype by environment (G x E) interaction (p<0.0001) in the 2007 and 2008 growing years. Growing year did not have a significant on antioxidant activity. Although there was some variation in the resulting AOA values between the two methods, these differences were found not to be statistically significant by means of a folded F-Test (p < 0.05), and the AOA between the two methods was highly correlated (R² = 0.8866). This indicates that a microplate may be used in place of cuvettes to determine AOA using the DPPH free radical to increase testing speed while reducing the amount of sample and reagent used in testing. The research performed on the influence of genotype and environment could potentially allow plant breeders, food scientists and nutraceutical manufacturers to manipulate field pea genotypes and growing conditions to attain an ideal nutritional profile for use in functional foods and nutraceuticals.

The addition of pea fibre to wheat bread supports the growing trend of improving health through diet. Various evaluation tools (bread scoring, C-cell, texture profile analysis, and ultrasound) were used to monitor the sensory and mechanical quality of air bubbles in bread. Different pea fibre particle sizes (250, 125, 180, 90 μm) were added at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 g/serving into a bread formulation. Improvements in specific loaf volume were observed when water absorption was optimized. Adequate water absorption mitigated the high dough viscosity effect of pea fibre. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay was used to measure antioxidant activity of pea fibre. All particle sizes of pea fibres had substantially greater antioxidant scavenging ability compared to wheat flour. The DPPH scavenging activity of pea fibre approached that of ascorbic acid by the end of the assay. Fibre-enriched bread had higher antioxidant activity compared to that of the control bread.

The overarching goal of this research was to investigate the effect of cultivar and environment on the physicochemical and functional properties of pea protein isolates using a structure-function approach. Six pea cultivars (Agassiz, CDC Golden, CDC Dakota, CDC Striker, CDC Tetris, Cooper) were collected from two years (2011, 2012) over two locations in Saskatchewan (Saskatoon and Rosthern) from two field replicates. Pea protein isolates were prepared from defatted flours by alkaline extraction (pH 9.0) followed by isoelectric precipitation (pH 4.5), and then neutralized to pH 7.0 prior to freeze-drying. Samples were evaluated for composition (amino acid profile, legumin/vicilin ratio), surface characteristics (zeta potential, surface hydrophobicity), and functional properties (nitrogen solubility, oil holding capacity, foaming capacity, foam stability, emulsion stability). In addition, samples were assessed for seed weight and colour, and compared against the functional characteristics of six commercially produced protein isolates (whey, wheat, egg, pea, and two soy ingredients). The extracted pea protein isolates had protein contents of ~91% (d.b.), as well as isolate and protein yields of ~18% and ~72%, respectively. Although cultivars exhibited a range of legumin/vicilin ratios from 0.36 (Agassiz) to 0.79 (CDC Golden), such differences were not reflected in their amino acid profiles. Differences amongst cultivars, as well as significant cultivar × environment interactions, were found for only surface hydrophobicity (195-267 a.u.), solubility (63-75%), and foaming capacity (167-244%). No differences in either cultivar or environment were observed in other surface (zeta potential = ~-24 mV) or functional (oil holding capacity = ~3.2 g/g; foam stability = ~75%; emulsion stability = ~96%) properties. All functional properties were significantly correlated with legumin/vicilin ratio and/or surface hydrophobicity. However, such relationships were weak (r = -0.19 to -0.20, and r = 0.17 to 0.32). The strongest correlation was observed between the legumin/vicilin ratio and surface hydrophobicity at r = 0.63 for the pea protein isolates. Meanwhile, zeta potential did not display a significant correlation to any property tested. In comparison to commercial protein isolates, the pea protein isolates behaved most similarly to soy except for solubility. Whey and egg were superior in solubility and the foaming properties, whereas wheat and the commercial pea protein product underperformed in almost all functionality tests. These findings suggest that while inherent protein material source may be important to functional behaviours, the method of extraction could pose even greater effects. This was observed between the laboratory- and commercially-prepared pea protein isolates, which at minimum differed in processing (defatting) and method of drying (freeze- vs. spray-dried). Coupled with the weak correlations between physicochemical and functional properties, findings overall indicate that method of protein isolate production play a more significant role in protein functional characteristics than cultivar, environment, or composition. Findings also suggest that secondary processors may not need to specify either cultivar or environment of their raw materials, thus creating advantages in their feedstock sourcing.