Effects of young barley leaf powder on gastrointestinal functions in rats and its efficacy-related physicochemical properties.

Motoya Ikeguchi,Kinya Takagaki,Yohko Sugawa-Katayama,Akira Takano,Masahito Tsubata,Tomoyasu Kamiya,Hideaki Tsuji,Hideyuki Ito

doi:10.1155/2014/974840

Abstract

Young barley leaf is consumed as a popular green-colored drink, which is named “Aojiru” in Japan. In the present study, we examined effects of young barley leaf powder (BL) on gastrointestinal transit time (GTT) and fecal moisture and weight in comparison with wheat bran (WB) in male Sprague-Dawley rats. In addition, an attempt was made to identify BL components responsible for these effects by using various fractions of BL. Additionally, we examined the water-holding capacity and setting volume of BL in vitro. We also examined the granular structures of BL with a scanning electron microscope. As a result, BL supplementation in the diet increased the fecal weight and shortened GTT. Our results demonstrate that the active component responsible for the effect on increasing the fecal volume in BL is the water-insoluble dietary fiber fraction and that this effect is thought to be caused by stimulation of the gut tract by the pH lowering. Furthermore, the high laxative action of BL was thought to be ascribable to the high water-holding capacity due to the complicated structures of BL.

Highlights

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a plant widely distributed and cultivated in eastern Asia and used as foodstuffs such as bread and cakes [1,2,3]
We examined the effects of barley leaf powder (BL) on gastrointestinal transit time (GTT) and the moisture and weight of feces compared with wheat bran (WB) in male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats
When we surveyed the effect of WB, BL, and each fraction of BL in this animal study, the dry fecal weight of the BL group increased and that of the WB or water-insoluble fraction (WI) group tended to increase compared with that of the CT group, but those of the ethanol-insoluble fraction (EI) and ethanol-soluble fraction (ES) groups were similar to that of the CT group

Summary

Introduction

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a plant widely distributed and cultivated in eastern Asia and used as foodstuffs such as bread and cakes [1,2,3]. We previously reported effect of young barley leaf powder (BL) on gastrointestinal functions of human healthy volunteers and those with mild constipation [9,10,11]. In these studies, we found that 2 g to 10 g of BL supplementation increased fecal weight and defecation frequency and improved other fecal characteristics. The effects of insoluble dietary fiber on gastrointestinal functions have been described in many reports [12,13,14,15]. We examined the granular structures of BL with a scanning electron microscope

Materials and Methods

In Vitro Experiments

Animal Experiments

Discussion