American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2015, 6, 14-22 Published Online January 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ajps http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2015.61003 How to cite this paper: Russo, R. and Reggiani, R. (2015) Evaluation of Protein Concentration, Amino Acid Profile and Anti- nutritional Compounds in Hempseed Meal from Dioecious and Monoecious Varieties. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 14-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2015.61003 Evaluation of Protein Concentration, Amino Acid Profile and Antinutritional Compounds in Hempseed Meal from Dioecious and Monoecious Varieties Roberto Russo, Remo Reggiani Istituto di Biologia e Biotecnologia Agraria, CNR, Via Bassini 15, Milano, Italy Email: reggiani@ibba.cnr.it Received 2 October 2014; revised 5 November 2014; accepted 12 December 2014 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Hempseed meal from three dioecious and three monoecious varieties has been evaluated for con- tent and quality of the protein and for the concentration of antinutritional compounds. Hemp seeds were obtained from plants grown in two experimental fields for two consecutive years (2011-2012). For all the varieties, hempseed meal resulted in a rich source of protein (34% mean content) with an amino acid profile extremely rich in arginine and slightly poor in lysine. Differ- ences between dioecious and monoecious varieties were observed in the content of antinutri- tional compounds. They were more concentrated in monoecious varieties in comparison with those dioecious. The concentration of phytic acid in hempseed meal deserves attention in both groups, being 63 and 75.4 g∙kg −1 of dry matter in dioecious and monocieous varieties, respectively. The results show that, besides the recognized value of hemp oil, also the hempseed cake could find application in animal feed as a substitute of other cakes (soybean, rapeseed). From this point of view, the dioecious varieties showing lower contents of antinutritional compounds with respect to the monoecious varieties would be preferred. Keywords Antinutritional Compounds, Amino acid Profile, Dioecious, Monoecious, Protein 1. Introduction Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to Cannabinaceae family known to have