Nutrient digestibility and biochemical indices of rats fed gmelina fruit pulp incorporated diets

Abstract

Biochemical indices and nutrient digestibility of rats fed ripe gmelina fruit pulp (RGFP) were assessed. Thirty albino rats were equally shared into five groups and fed  five diets for the growth and digestibility trials. Maize was the sole energy source of diet I. RGFP replaced 25, 50, 75 and 100% of maize in diets II, III, IV and V, respectively. Group fecal output was used for proximate analysis to calculate digestibility coefficients. The experimental design used was the Completely Randomized Design, One-way Analysis of Variance while significant (p<0.05) means were separated using Least Significant Difference. Dry Matter (DM), Crude Protein (CP), Ether Extract (EE), Nitrogen Free Extract (NFE), Crude Fiber (CF) and ash digestibility ranged from 89.65-89.67, 83.56-69.16, 97.86-85.14,  63.56-52.23, 68.15-53.0 and 76.60-76.38%, respectively. Aspartate Amino Transaminase (AST), Alanine Amino Transferase (ALT), serum cholesterol, K⁺, Na⁺, Cl^-, Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN), serum glucose, P, Ca⁺, HCO ^-, total protein, serum triglyceride and 3 serum creatinine were 65.90-63.68UI/L, 47.63-45.40UI/L, 30.40-29.30mg/100ml, 5.31-5.10mEq/L, 147.25-145mEq/L, 107.75-104.75mEq/L, 6.97-4.10mg/100ml, 50.45-10mg/100ml, 4.06- 4.01mg/100ml,  7.23-7.11mg/100ml,  22.80-22.50mg/100ml, 8.80-9.47g/100ml, 2.03-0.48mmols/L and 2.74-2.50mg/dL, respectively. RGFP did not affect (p>0.05) blood P, Ca⁺, HCO ^- , cholesterol, 3 K⁺, Na⁺, Cl^-; DM and NFE digestibility. As RGFP level increased, AST, ALT, total protein and serum creatinine and digestibility of CP and EE increased while CF, BUN, serum glucose and triglyceride decreased. Biochemical indices indicate liver injury, starvation and muscular wasting. ALT, BUN, serum glucose and triglyceride of diet I were comparable to those of diet II, hence, RGFP could replace 25% of maize without endangering the rats.

Keywords: Blood chemistry, ripe gmelina fruit pulp, digestibility