Asian Food Science Journal

Scarcity of protein-rich foods has been the bane of developing countries with its attendant nutritional problems. Research efforts have been directed towards finding solutions to this problem. This include investigation into the nutritional potentials of some lesser known legumes and grains. This paper looked at the effect of processed kudzu flours on the liver enzymes,alkaline phosphotase (ALP), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT); lipid peroxidation of the liver and pancreatic tissues as well as the liver and pancreatic architecture of wistar rats. Raw, cooked and time-controlled autoclaved (20mins,40mins, 60mins) kudzu seeds were made into flours and compounded into 7 diets. Diet 1contained the raw kudzu flour,diet 2 and 7 had the cooked kudzu flour while diets 3-5 had time-controlled autoclaved (20mins,40mins, 60mins) kudzu flour respectively. Diet 6 was the negative control diet and diet 8 was the positive control.Diet 8 had lower ALP value ( 51.6±6.5iu) than the other groups though not statistically (p≤0.05) different. Diet 3had the highest AST(51.0 ± 0.iu) which was statistically (p≤0.05) different from the other groups and ALT (48.0 ± 0.1 iu) that was statistically (p≤0.05) not different with only group 4. The level of malondialdehyde in the liver was lowest in Diet 2 (2.75 x 10-5 ± 0.07 x 10- 5MDA unit) followed by Diets 6 and 8.While the level in the pancreatic tissues was lowest in Diet 8 (83.25 X 10^-5± 0.07 x 10^-5 MDA unit). However,the variations in the level of MDA in both organs in all the groups were not statistically (p≤0.05) different. Histopathological examination of the liver tissues showed various degrees of abnormalities in Diets (1, 3,4,5 and 6) while Diets 2,7 and 8 had normal cell architecture. The pancreatic tissues showed normal architecture. The results therefore suggest that kudzu when processed poses no toxicological danger to animal and by extension man.