Comparative Screening of the Nutritive Composition and Serum Nutrient Levels of Rats Weaned with Rice (Oryza spp) - Beniseed (Sesame indicum) Flour Blends

Weaning foods should complement the nourishment the baby receives from milk. This study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional value of Rice-Beniseed (R-B) flour-blends in rats’ pups. The objective of the study was to determine the Nutritive value of Rice-Beniseed flour blends of rats’ pups weaned with different ratios of the flour-blends. First, mature female and male rats in the ratio of 2:1 were mated to produce pups used in the analyses. The pups were randomly distributed into five groups of five rats and were fed with the experimental (Rice-Beniseed) blends. Group 1 was fed with a standard weaning meal, groups 2, 3, 4 and 5 were fed ad lib with Rice-Beniseed blends (after proximate analysis for nutritive content) in the ratio of 30:70, 50:50, 60:40 and 70:30 respectively. All treatments lasted for 21 days, after which their blood was collected for haematological and biochemical analyses. The results showed carbohydrate (71.76 %) and moisture content (14.75 %) of rice to be higher than beniseed with values of 18.74 and 8.24 % respectively. The crude proteins (23.19 %), crude fibre (11.47 %) and fats (36.40%) content in beniseed was more than doubled compared to that in rice with 9.38 %, 1.339 % and 2.41 % for crude protein, crude fibre, and fats contents respectively. Percentage weight change in pups was highest (26.31 ± 1.03%) and least (8.69 ± 2,32%) in the 50:50 and 60:40 rice-beniseed groups on day 7. Percentage weight change of pups on day 14 showed that groups fed with 70:30 and 50:50 ratios with the highest (37.24 ± 0.47%) and least (6.16 ± 1.14%) weight gain respectively. Hence, 70:30 (Rice-Beniseed blend) meal produced the best growth index (weight increase) and was potentially viable for the formulation of infant weaning formula amidst appreciable performance of all other ratios