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Small quantities of carotenoid-rich tropical green leafy vegetables indigenous to Africa maintain vitamin A status in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2010

Richard A. Ejoh
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA Department of Food Science and Nutrition, National School of Agro-Industrial Sciences, University of Ngaoundere, Box 455, Ngaoundere, Cameroon
Joseph T. Dever
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Jordan P. Mills
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Sherry A. Tanumihardjo*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Sherry A. Tanumihardjo, fax +1 608 262 5860, email sherry@nutrisci.wisc.edu
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Abstract

Leafy vegetables are important sources of provitamin A carotenoids. Information on their ability to provide vitamin A is often misleading because of the methodology used to assess bioefficacy. Mongolian gerbils were used to evaluate the bioefficacy of provitamin A carotenoids in tropical leafy vegetables (i.e. Solanum nigrum, Moringa oleifera, Vernonia calvoana and Hibiscus cannabinus) that are indigenous to Africa. Gerbils (n 67) were vitamin A-depleted for 5 weeks. After a baseline kill (n 7), the gerbils were weight-matched and assigned to six treatment groups (n 10; four vegetable groups; negative and positive controls). For 4 weeks, the treatments included 35 nmol vitamin A (theoretical concentrations based on 100 % bioefficacy) in the form of vegetables or retinyl acetate. In addition to their diets, the control and vegetable groups received daily doses of oil, while the vitamin A group received retinyl acetate in oil matched to prior day intake. Serum and livers were analysed for vitamin A using HPLC. Serum retinol concentrations did not differ among groups, but total liver vitamin A of the vitamin A and vegetable groups were higher than that of the negative control group (P < 0·0001). Liver β-carotene 15,15′-monooxygenase-1 expression levels were determined for two vegetable groups and were similar to the positive and negative controls. Conversion factors for the different leafy vegetables were between 1·9 and 2·3 μg β-carotene equivalents to 1 μg retinol. Small quantities of these vegetables maintained vitamin A status in gerbils through efficient bioconversion of β-carotene to retinol.

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Full Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2010
Figure 0

Table 1 Composition of gerbil diets used to determine the bioefficacy of green leafy vegetables common in Africa

Figure 1

Table 2 Macronutrient composition and carotenoid concentrations in four varieties of leafy vegetables used to prepare Mongolian gerbil feeds to determine vitamin A bioefficacy on a dry weight basis*(Mean values and standard deviations)

Figure 2

Fig. 1 Liver retinol reserves in μmol/liver of gerbils fed Solanum nigrum (SN), Moringa oleifera (MO), Vernonia calvoana (VC) or Hibiscus cannabinus (HC). A baseline (Base) group was killed before treatment started. A control (Con) group received cottonseed oil only and the vitamin A (VA) group received a dose of retinyl acetate that was matched to one-half (in mol) of the β-carotene equivalents (1 mol β-carotene +1 mol cis-β-carotenes +1/2 mol α-carotene) that the vegetable groups consumed the day before. a,b,c Mean values with a common letter were not significantly different.

Figure 3

Fig. 2 Expression of β-carotene 15,15′-monooxygenase-1 (BCMO1) in the livers of gerbils fed a vitamin A-free basal diet and given daily oral doses of cottonseed oil only, vitamin A (35 nmol), or fed a customised diet containing powdered Solanum nigrum or Vernonia calvoana containing 35 nmol theoretical vitamin A (a). α-Tubulin was used as a housekeeping protein. The BCMO1 bands were densitometrically analysed (b) with normalisation to α-tubulin to measure expression level differences among treatment groups (P = 0·12).

Figure 4

Table 3 Bioconversion factors for tropical green leafy vegetables indigenous to Africa fed to Mongolian gerbils