This study addressed the
key nutritional differences between peanuts and walnuts. It was hypothesized that peanuts have a
higher nutritional value than walnuts because they have a higher protein
concentration and a wider variety of amino acids, proteins, monosaccharides,
disaccharides and polysaccharides. The
nuts were put into solution and various tests were used to qualitatively and
quantitatively analyze the nutrient content.
Barfoed’s test was used to test for the presence of
monosaccharides. The presence of ketoses
or aldoses was tested for using Selivanoff’s test. The presence of starches in the samples was
determined using the Iodine test. The Bradford
Assay was used to ascertain the protein concentration of the samples. To find out which amino acids were present in
the sample a thin layer chromatography test was performed. High performance liquid chromatography was
used to find the number of different proteins.
Peanuts and walnuts were found to lack monosaccharides. There was not a positive test for ketoses or
aldoses in either of the nuts tested.
Both peanuts and walnuts were found to contain starch. Since the carbohydrate test results were
identical for both peanuts and walnuts, further quantitative tests are
necessary to draw comparative conclusions.
The average protein concentration in the peanut solution was found to be
188 mg/ml. The average protein
concentration in the walnut solution was found to be 190. mg/ml. This means that walnuts have a higher
concentration of protein, but since the measurements are so close the resulting
nutritional difference is negligible.
The walnuts showed 10 different types of proteins along with the following
amino acids: lysine, cysteine, arginine, histidine and praline. While only 4 different kinds of proteins
were found in peanuts, along with these amino acids: tryptophan, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, valine and serine.