Abstract

Functional food or medicinal food is any healthy food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. Three nutritional preparations including wheat powder salt solution (WPSS), milk-wheat solution (MWS), fermented milk (FM) and fermented soymilk (FSM) were evaluated for their anti-diarrheal activity by oral administration in model of Castor oil induced diarrhea in rats. Oral rehydration solution (ORS) was used as positive control. The fermented products were prepared using a mixture of Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC 4356: and Bifidobacterium bifidum ATCC 700541 (1:1 v/v) to obtain a final level of 10^7-8 CFU/ml after incubation at 37°C. Beside the gain body weight (BW), certain biochemical parameters such as total protein, albumin, globulin, urea, creatinine, alanine amino-transferase (ALT), aspartate amino-transferase (AST), sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron and phosphorus were determined.

According to follow the diarrheal symptoms including stool frequency, stool characteristics and BW, rats administrated with FSM were recovered from diarrhea (on the 3^rd day) faster than other groups followed by those subjected with FM and CY. The ORS-positive control group rats were recovered on the 6^th day, while diarrheal symptoms still appeared on the negative control rats (subjected with basal diet only; without ORS) with 16% death rate. Minerals, especially sodium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus, were the most significant biochemical parameters for following recovery from diarrhea. The normal levels of these minerals were recovered in the blood serum at the end of experiment in rats administrated with the fermented products (FSM, FM and CY). Some renal functional parameters were suggested to follow diarrhea, but all studied liver functional parameters were not significantly recommended.

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