H. Komaki et al., THE EFFECT OF PROCESSING OF CHLORELLA-VULGARIS, K-5 ON IN-VITRO AND IN-VIVO DIGESTIBILITY IN RATS, Animal feed science and technology, 70(4), 1998, pp. 363-366
Two experiments were done to clarify whether or not cell rupture is ne
cessary to improve the digestibility of major components of Chlorella
vulgaris: K-5. Chlorella was treated with or without high pressure hom
ogenization (1 X 10(8) N/m(2) at less than -20 degrees C) after a heat
ing process (100-120 degrees C). Chlorella (air-dry matter) contained
934 g dry matter and 244 g essential amino acids (total)/kg. Chemical
composition was hardly altered irrespective of the treatment. In the f
irst experiment, pepsin digestibility of chlorella protein was determi
ned in vitro. The cell rupture by high pressure homogenization caused
a small but significant improvement in pepsin digestibility of chlorel
la protein compared with the control. In the second experiment, total
tract apparent digestibilities of chlorella were determined in the rat
. Digestibility of chlorella protein was significantly enhanced by hig
h pressure homogenization, but the difference (88.6% vs. 87.4%, P < 0.
01) due to treatment was small and similar to that observed in the in
vitro experiment. These results suggested that Chlorella strain vulgar
is: K-5 may be an efficient protein source even without cell rupture.
(C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.