Maejo International Journal of Science and Technology Effects of organic and conventional rice on protein efficiency ratio and pesticide residue in rats

Abstract: The comparative effects of organic rice and conventional rice on the protein efficiency ratio (PER) in rats were investigated by feeding 40 male Sprague-Dawley rats for four weeks with three experimental diets containing polished conventional rice (PCR), unpolished conventional rice (UCR), unpolished organic rice (UOR) and a control protein diet (casein) under standardised conditions. All diets were prepared according to AOAC guidelines. The results showed no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) among the values of PER (2.75 ± 0.14 -2.80 ± 0.09) in rats fed with diets containing PCR, UCR or UOR. Similar growth was also observed among the three groups fed with different experimental diets. Additionally, residues of pesticides, viz. carbofuran, methyl parathion, p-nitrophenol and -cyfluthrin, in rat blood and rice samples were determined using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry. Pesticide residues were not detected in all serum samples of experimental rats and only p-nitrophenol was found (8.23 ± 0.65 -12.84 ± 2.58 mg/kg) in all samples of the cooked rice diets, indicating that organic rice produced similar effect as conventional rice on PER and growth in rats

Edible mushrooms as a novel protein source for functional foods

Fast demographic growth has led to an increasing interest in low-cost alternative protein sources to meet population needs. Consequently, the attention of many researchers has focused on finding under-exploited sources of protein, alternative to those of animal origin, usually plant proteins have been used for this purpose, however, most of them are not considered high quality proteins due to their lack of some essential amino acids. Mushroom proteins usually have a complete essential amino acid profile which may cover the dietetic requirements as well as they may have certain economic advantages compared to animal and plant sources since many mushrooms have the ability to grow in agro-industrial waste as well as on submerged cultures reaching high yields in a short period of time. Edible mushrooms can be processed to obtain a wide variety of food products enriched with high quality protein, which may have as well improved functional properties, giving them an added value.This work was supported by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). This study was also supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte also, Project ColOsH 02/SAICT/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030071)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio