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American Journal of Food Technology

Year: 2009 | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Page No.: 30-35
DOI: 10.3923/ajft.2009.30.35
Nutritional Quality of 1st Generation Quality Protein Maize Diet and its Effect on Some Biological Indices of Albino Wistar Rats
I.O. Williams, M.A. Agiang, O.O. Ekpe, U.I. Aletan, E.O. Edet and I.J. Atangwho

Abstract: Twenty male albino rats of the Wistar strain were placed in four experimental groups of five rats each. Group A (Reference group) received a standard protein diet, Group B received a basal or protein-free diet, Group C received the F1-QPM diet, while Group D received common maize (CM) diet. Water and feed were allowed ad libitum. Rats were fed for 21 days at the expiration of which indices of protein nutritional quality viz PER, NPU, NPR, TD and BV, were evaluated. The results showed that Group C rats had a higher (p<0.05) protein efficiency ratio (PER) value of 0.97 ± 0.06 compared to rats in Group D (0.48 ± 0.28). Similarly, net protein utilization (NPU) value of 80.67 ± 3.21% for group C was significantly (p<0.05) higher than for group D (41.83 ± 5.48). The same trend was observed for true digestibility (TD) and biological value (BV). The values were TD (89.27 ± 0.55% for Group C and 81.59 ± 0.11% for Group D) and BV (90.30 ± 2.56% for Group C and 51.00 ± 6.10% for Group D) respectively. Values of net protein ratio (NPR) obtained also followed the same trend (1.85 ± 0.06 for Group C and 1.61 ± 0.39 for Group D) but not significantly different (p>0.05). Additionally, the protein contents of the F1-QPM and CM diets compared showed that though F1-QPM had a higher level of protein (11.80 ± 2.84%) than CM (10.67 ± 0.31%), the difference was not significant (p>0.05). Quality protein maize (QPM) maintained its high nutritional quality in spite of change in environment. Increased cultivation and utilization of QPM is recommended as this could help to alleviate hunger and protein malnutrition in developing countries.

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How to cite this article
I.O. Williams, M.A. Agiang, O.O. Ekpe, U.I. Aletan, E.O. Edet and I.J. Atangwho, 2009. Nutritional Quality of 1st Generation Quality Protein Maize Diet and its Effect on Some Biological Indices of Albino Wistar Rats. American Journal of Food Technology, 4: 30-35.

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