RESUMO
This study was conducted to investigate the potential use of roasted bottle gourd seeds [BGS] as a source of protein, oil and fiber in some bakery products [white pan bread and cup cake] and determine their hypocholesterolemic effects in rats. The roasted whole BGS were subjected to different chemical determinations [Trypsin inhibitor activity and proximal composition]. White pan bread and cup cake were fortified with roasted whole BGS and their kernel flours at different percentages [10, 15 and 20%]. All the fortified samples were subjected to both objective and organoleptic evaluation. The fortified products which maintained better characteristics were subjected to nutritive value determination. The biological study included 20 male albino rats of Sprague Dawley strain, weighing [120 +/- 10 g] and lasted for 4 weeks. The rats were divided into four main groups [n = 5 rats] as follows group 1 [control] fed on a basal diet, group 2 hypocholesterolemic [HC] rats fed on a high fat and high cholesterol diet, group 3 rats fed on hypocholesterolemic diet containing [10%] raw BGS flour and group 4 rats fed on hypocholesterolemic diet containing [10%] roasted BGS flour. Food intake, body weight gain, feed efficiency ratio [FER], relative organ weights. hematocrit level, serum calcium, iron and lipid profiles were determined. Results showed that the chemical composition of fortified white pan bread and cup cake improved significantly [p<0.05] as compared to the control. The biological study showed that rats fed on raw BGS had significant [p<0.05] decrease in food intake, body weight gain, FER, hematocrit level and high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration, while it induced significant [p<0.05] increase in low density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations as compared to the control group. Meanwhile, roasted BGS caused significant [p<0.05] increase in body weight gain and ameliorate the lipid profile parameters. Feeding tested rats on raw and roasted BGS each individually resulted in non-significant [p<0.05] decrease in calcium level and non-significant increase in iron level comparing with HC group. It can be concluded that under the study condition, roasted BGS had good impact on nutritional values of bakery products and showed hypocholesterolemic effectl on experimental animals