But Hamaker found that one sorghum variety, developed at Purdue, has a protein body wall that allows stomach enzymes easier access to the proteins. In most types of sorghum, stomach enzymes can extract only about 55 percent of the protein from the sorghum. But in this new variety, protein digestibility is 85 to 90 percent, Hamaker says. That's a big jump. By comparison, humans digest 81 percent of the protein in wheat and 73 percent of the protein in corn.
Sorghum ranks fifth among cereal grains in world production, behind wheat, corn, rice and barley.
Hamaker's findings were published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the research earned Hamaker the 2000 Purdue University Agricultural Research Award. In the United States, sorghum is mostly used as animal feed, but it is an important human food in some developing countries. Sorghum is a staple food of about 300-400 million people in the world. It's not that it's not utilized, it's just not utilized that well. Hamaker and his colleagues are working on the new sorghum variety to optimize its benefits and it won't be ready for release for another two or three years.