Nutritional performance and antioxidant activities of roasted and unroasted sprouted sorghum-based weaning diets in Wistar rats

Abstract

The nutritional performance and antioxidant profile of sprouted sorghum‐based weaning diets were evaluated in weaning wistar rats. Rats were fed basal diet, unroasted germinated sorghum‐based diet, roasted germinated sorghum‐based diet, or a commercial weaning feed (nutrend) for 28 days. Energy, carbohydrate, crude protein, lipids, crude fiber, and ash contents of the sorghum‐based diets compared significantly with FAO/WHO recommendations. Contrastingly, moisture content of the germinated sorghum‐based diet was higher than the recommendation. Weight gain, feed efficiency ratio, protein efficiency ratio, net protein utilization, biological value, and digestibility of unroasted germinated sorghum‐based diet‐fed rats compared significantly with Nutrend. Roasted germinated sorghum‐based diet produced differential effects on these indices. The unroasted germinated sorghum‐based diet significantly raised the antioxidant enzymes in the rat liver and kidney. Overall, evidence from the study indicates that unroasted germinated sorghum‐based diet improves the nutritional performance and the antioxidants of weaning rats compared to the roasted germinated sorghum‐based diet. Practical applications The provision of nutritionally adequate food from local sources during the weaning period of infants continues to be a major source of concern in developing countries. The formulated unroasted sprouted sorghum‐based diet can be adapted and used as weaning food. Furthermore, the diet can be processed and developed into a weaning food.