Nutritional Biomarkers of Tiger Nut (Cyperus esculentus) Intake in Albino Rats

Ramatu Suleiman Aliyu, Abdullahi Muhammad Umar and Salisu Maiwada Abubakar

Background and Objective: The use of Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and 24 hrs dietary recalls remain a challenging issue in dietary assessment as a result of errors in reporting methods and dietary information available is normally biased. This study is aimed at assessing the biomarkers of tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) intake in Albino rats. Materials and Methods: Tiger nut samples were processed using the standard technique. Twenty-five male Wistar rats weighing between 100-120 g were grouped into five with five rats per group and each group was fed with a different concentration of tiger nut juice for 28 days. The functional groups and the nutritional biomarkers in the tiger nut samples as well as serum samples of rats fed with tiger nut, were assessed using FT-IR and LC-MS, respectively. Results: FT-IR spectroscopy confirms the appearance of functional groups OH, C = O and C-O at 3291-3268, 1744-1746 and 2926-3000 cm^–1 bands, respectively. LC-MS analysis of serum sample of rats fed with 3 g kg^–1 b.wt., of whole tiger nut showed the presence of pyridoxine (m/z 170.165), pristanic acid (m/z 299.33), hydroxynicotinic acid (m/z 140.126). At 1.5 g kg^–1 b.wt., LC-MS analysis of the serum sample reveals the presence of proline (m/z 116.49), valine (m/z 118.033) and oxocholic acid (m/z 407.289). Conclusion: Serum proline, valine and oxocholic acids could be some of the potential biomarkers of tiger nut intake. However, more studies are needed to validate this finding.

View Fulltext Back