Konjac mannan improves the vitamin B-6 status of rats fed a vitamin B-6-deficient diet

To investigate how dietary fiber in the diet affects vitamin B-6 nutriture of rats which have been deprived of vitamin B-6, rats were made vitamin B-6 -deficient by feeding a vitamin B-6-deficient 70% casein diet, They were fe d 2% cellulose powder-based vitamin B-6;-deficient diets supplemented with 3% of additional dietary fiber sources (agar, konjac mannan, pectin and cel lulose powder) for subsequent 18 days. Vitamin B-6 status was evaluated acc ording to several biological criteria (weight gain, urinary excretion of xa nthurenic acid after tryptophan loading, plasma pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, app arent pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-saturation of liver kynureninase, urinary excr etion of 4-pyridoxic acid and fecal output of vitamin B-6), Vitamin B-6 sta tus evaluated by these criteria was considerably improved in the konjac man nan-fed group, when compared with the respective data of the vitamin B-6 su pplemented group, The relative mean effect of the konjac mannan diet was ab out 40% of the vitamin B-6 supplemented diet. In conclusion, konjac mannan was effective for improving the vitamin B-6 nutritional state in vitamin B- 6-deprived rats.