Abstract
<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The aim of this work was to investigate the capability of a high dose of thaumatin; a sweet tasting protein, of improving induced protein malnutrition in male Wistar rats.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>For this study, 12 rats were divided into 2 groups and treated orally along with a high-carbohydrate, low-protein diet as follows: water group as a negative control, and thaumatin group at a dose of 464 mg/kg for 3 consecutive w. Blood samples were collected to analyse glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and total protein, and body weight was measured. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was carried out at the end of the experiment.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Despite the high amount of<strong> </strong>thaumatin used, only a slight increase in blood glucose occurred and was within the normal range, whereas serum triglycerides and cholesterol decreased significantly unlike control. Body weight had declined in both groups due to a low-protein diet, while total protein and glucose tolerance remained unchanged.</p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>It is found that<strong> </strong>thaumatin is safe to consume by Wistar rats even at high doses. Besides that high-carbohydrate, low-protein diet caused falling of body weight, it had drawbacks of increased triglycerides and cholesterol levels which can be useful to create animal models of abnormal lipid metabolism without obesity. However, simultaneous ingestion of thaumatin with this diet had altered the outcomes to the best case. In future, it may be possible to use this combination for achieving healthy eating patterns without drug intervention that is needed for obese patients with various dysglycemia or dyslipidemia manifestations and people following regimes for weight reduction.<p> </p>
Highlights
Industry sectors and consumers are becoming more demanding of sugar substitutes especially natural ones such as thaumatin for their distinctive properties of safety and suitability to diet purposes
Thaumatin is a sweet protein extracted from the fruit of plant Thaumatococcus daniellii (Benth.)
Since blood glucose level (BGL) value for T group did not change significantly compared to water or over the experimental period, it can be said that thaumatin did not affect long-term BGL, too
Summary
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of administrating a very high dose of thaumatin; some 16 000 times the estimated maximum daily consumer intake in 1984 [10], on blood parameters and body weight in Wistar rats together with a high-carbohydrate low-protein diet in order to explore thaumatin’s capability of protein compensating for induced protein malnutrition. This study was conducted on 12 rats randomly divided into 2 groups (n=6); (1) control: treated with only water W at an average of 0.91 ml/d, (2) thaumatin T (Naturex, England) at a dose of 464 mg/kg/d.
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