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GROWTH PERFORMANCE, BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS AND HISTOLOGICAL EVALUATION IN RATS FED OPTIMIZED LUAM-NAHAN PORRIDGE FLOUR FORMULATED WITH HIGH-QUALITY PROTEIN MAIZE AND PROVITAMIN-A CASSAVA

DAAGEMA Anastasia Angorkuma, AJAYI Kayode, TALABI Justina Yetunde, OBISESAN Abiola O., MOMOH Clement Owoicho, CHIPILI Given, OLANIYI Kehinde S., OYEJIDE Samuel Olarewaju

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Abstract

Preschooler under nutrition especially in the low and middle-income countries has continued to raise global concern, requiring urgent attention. This study evaluates the growth performance, biochemical and histological parameters of rats feed with an enhanced luam-nahan porridge flour developed for preschoolers. Thirty-two male wister rats were acclimatized for seven days, grouped into four groups of eight rats each using complete randomized design for a twenty-eight days feeding experiment. G1=basal diet, G2=traditional diet, G3= Optimized luam-nahan diet and G4=commercial rat pellet. Rats were weighed weekly, after sacrifice, reverse HPLC and spectrometry methods were used for serum micronutrient analysis while hematoxylin and eosin staining procedure was used for organ histology. Data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA, result reported as means and standard deviations(p<0.05). The result indicates that, only rats in groups 3 and 4 showed significant mean weight gain of 7.19g±1.63g and 8.55g±1.06, with the highest mean feed intake of 278.95g±0.15 recorded from rats in G4 compared to other groups. Serum retinol(2.01µmol/L±0.01) and zinc (20.8 µmol/L±0.52) was highest among rats in G3. Serum iron(15.6ng/mL±0.36) was lower in G2 compared to G3(32.9 ng/mL±0.10). Lower organ weight with negative histological changes was observed from rats in G1 and G2 relative to those of G3 and G4 with higher weight and healthy organs. The optimized luam-nahan flour showed adequate support for animal growth, higher serum micronutrient bioavailability and consumption safety. The enhanced flour could serve as a viable option for the prevention and reduction of protein and micronutrient deficiencies among preschoolers and other populations.

 

Keywords: Micronutrients, Malnutrition, Biological Availability, Developing Countries, Organ Size