Cereal Sources Alter Response to Supplementary Polyphenols on Performance, Serum Biochemistry and Internal Organs in Wistar Rats

An experiment was carried out with 21-d old weaned Wistar rats (n=60) to assess the polyphenols response to dietary manipulations. The rats were divided into six groups with five replicated having two in each. The rats were fed with two different types of cereal sources (corn vs. rice-sorghum combined) as soybean meal served as protein source in both cereal categories. The treatment groups included cornsoybean meal without polyphenol extract (PPE) supplementation (T1), corn-soybean meal with 50 ppm of PPE (T2), corn-soybean meal with 100 ppm of PPE (T3), rice-sorghum-soybean meal diet without PPE (T4), rice-sorghum-soybean meal diet with 50 ppm of PPE (T5) and rice-sorghum-soybean meal diet with 100 ppm of PPE (T6). The rats were maintained under polypropylene cages and reared for 45 d under air-conditioned laboratory animal house. The body weight of rats was significantly higher in corn based diet supplemented with PPE at 50 and 100 ppm than the rice-sorghum based diet. The supplementation of PPE significantly reduced the serum total cholesterol, triglycerides and plasma glucose content in rats irrespective of cereal sources. The organ weights and tibial bone weight did not affect by the combination of cereal sources and PPE levels. The caecal and colon aerobic, E. coli and lactobacillus population remained unaffected by the diet composition and PPE levels. It could be concluded that supplementation of pomegranate peel extract exhibited better performance with corn-soybean meal based diet.