Extruded breakfast meal from malted finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) seed flour: in-vivo nutritional qualities study

Abstract

BackgroundThe study aimed at evaluating the in-vivo nutritional qualities of extruded breakfast meal produced from flour blends of malted finger millet and watermelon seed.ResultsThe proximate compositions of the flour blends revealed that there was progressive increase in protein (12.83–15.14) %, with increase in the watermelon substitution. The protein quality evaluation of the extrudate showed that the protein efficiency ratio ranged from 0.64 to 89.75, while the biological values were between (87.82–89.75)%. The relative organs weight of rats fed with extruded breakfast meal showed that, the weights of the kidney and liver of rats fed with extruded breakfast meal were significantly lower compared with rats fed with goldenmorn. The hematological indices showed that the packed cell volume and the red blood cell counts of rats fed with the formulated diets were significantly lower compared with those fed with goldenmorn but significantly higher than rats fed with basal. Meanwhile, the values of the white blood cells count for the formulated diet shows no significant difference compared with rats fed with goldenmorn.ConclusionsEvidently, the growth performance of the rats fed with the extruded breakfast meal revealed that the formulated diets promote growth status of the animals with relatively low effect on organs of experimental rat used in this study. Hence, formulated diet may serve as alternative to expensive commercial breakfast meal.