Nutritive value and biological evaluation of processed cowpea diets compared with local weaning foods in Nigeria
1987
Uwaegbute, A.C. | Nnanyelugo, D.O.
Extract: The nutritive and biological values of three diets based on cowpea-cereal or cowpea-yam tuber mixtures were determined. Two other foods (cerelac and corn pap) used for weaning in Nigeria were similarly assessed. All diets were compared with casein as control. The diets were formulated to contain 10% protein. Protein from the cowpea/cereal was in the ratio of 70:30 while that from cowpea/root crop was 80:20. Six rats with initial weights of 45-55 grams were raised on each of the diets for 35 days. The rats were weighed twice a week and food intake recorded daily. Urine and faecal output over the 7 days before sacrifice were collected. Protein efficiency ratio (PER), biological value (BV), net protein utilisation (NPU) and nitrogen balance were determined. The results showed no significant difference in the food intakes of the rats fed the three experimental diets and cerelac, but food consumption of casein fed group was significantly higher than for all the other diets. Nitrogen consumption of rats fed casein was similar to those of animals fed cerelac and DCP:CO but significantly higher than for other groups. However, faecal and urinary nitrogen excretion of rats fed cerelac were significantly higher than other diets investigated. The digestibility of cowpea-rice mixture was similar to that of casein. PER, NPU, BV and organ weighed for all six diets were similar. However, as expected, pap had inferior value for all parameters examined.(author)
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