BIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF DATE-WASTE DIETARY FIBER AND ENDOMYCOPSIS-FIBULIGERA PROTEIN WITH RATS

The effects of 100 g/kg diet substitution of date-waste dietary fibre, DW1, untreated (diet II) or after growing Endomycopsis fibuligera on it for 60 hours, DW2 (diet III), on the body weight gain, food efficie ncy ratio (FER); protein efficiency ratio (PER), food intake; food con version efficiency (FCE) and apparent digestibility (Dapp) of rats fed a high-carbohydrate diet (I) for 8 weeks were studied. Rats fed on th e three diets exhibited good nutritional values during the first 4 wee ks. Then these values began to decrease with increasing time of feedin g in the cases of diets II and III, only. The results also showed a hi ghly significant decrease in the levels of glucose in sera, and glycog en in the liver and muscles of rats fed diets II and III. The fibres c aused a significant decrease in lipid and protein contents in the musc les of rats fed diets II and III over the control diet I. Copyright (C ) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.