Avances recientes en la formulación de grasas a base de plantas como sustituto de la manteca de cerdo

Lard is one of the main animal fats used as shortening and frying medium. Religious prohibitions and negative health perceptions regarding animal fats have caused concerns about the consumption of lard among communities living around the world. Various research efforts have been made in the past to formulate plant-based fats and shortenings as substitutes for the exclusion of lard from food. This would eventually help countries to regularize food formulations according to their religious compliance. As the existence of a single plant fat as substitute for lard has not been discovered from nature, researchers attempted to study the possibility of mixing native fats and oils such as enkabang fat, canola oil, guava oil, palm oil, palm stearin, soybean oil and cocoa butter as raw materials. The compatibility of the formulated plant-based fat substitute for lard was assessed in terms of chemical composition and thermo-physical properties. The formulated plant-based shortenings and lard shortening were simply plastic fats based on their consistency value and existence of β’ and β-form polymorphs of which the β’ -form was dominant. The functional properties of formulated plant-based shortenings and lard were also compared in the formulation of cookies. Although a substantial amount of work has been done over the past decade, there was hardly any discussion on the pros and cons of the approaches used for raw material selection and the criteria adopted in the assessment of the formulated products. Hence, this review intended to bring an update of the progress of studies with regard to these two aspects.La manteca de cerdo es una de las grasas animales que se utiliza principalmente como manteca y como medio para freír. Las prohibiciones religiosas y las percepciones de salud negativas con respecto a las grasas animales han causado preocupación sobre el consumo de manteca de cerdo entre las comunidades que viven en todo el mundo. Se han realizado varios esfuerzos de investigación, en el pasado, para formular grasas y mantecas vegetales como sustitutos de la exclusión de la manteca de cerdo de los alimentos. Esto eventualmente ayudaría a los países a regularizar las formulaciones de alimentos de acuerdo con el cumplimiento religioso. Como todavía no se ha descubierto en la naturaleza la existencia de una sola grasa vegetal como sustituto de la manteca de cerdo, los investigadores intentaron estudiar esta posibilidad mezclando grasas y aceites nativos como grasa enkabang, aceite de canola, aceite de guayaba, aceite de palma, estearina de palma, aceite de soja y manteca de cacao como materia prima. Se evaluó la compatibilidad del sucedáneo de grasas vegetales formuladas con la manteca de cerdo en términos de composición química y propiedades termofísicas. Las mantecas vegetales formuladas y la manteca vegetal eran simplemente grasas plásticas basadas en su valor de consistencia y la existencia de polimorfos de las formas β ‘y β de las cuales la forma β’ era dominante. También se compararon las propiedades funcionales de las mantecas vegetales formuladas y la manteca de cerdo en la formulación de galletas. Aunque se ha realizado una cantidad considerable de trabajo durante la última década, apenas hubo discusión sobre los pros y los contras de los enfoques utilizados para la selección de materias primas y los criterios adoptados en la evaluación de los productos formulados. Por tanto, esta revisión pretendía aportar una actualización del avance de los estudios en relación con estos dos aspectos

Effects of elephant's foot (Elephantopus scaber) extract on growth performance, immune response, and disease resistance of nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings

Medicinal plant has been applied as an alternative strategy for antibiotics and chemotherapeutics for controlling the outbreak of diseases in tilapia farming. In this study, five doses of Elephantopus scaber extract (ESE) were added to the basal diet at 0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 g kg−1 feed of Nile tilapia fingerlings (13.92 ± 0.06 g initial weight) in triplicate. After 4- and 8- weeks post-feeding, fish were sampled to determine the effects of the ESE supplemented on fish's growth performance, humoral, and skin mucus immune response. After 8 weeks post-feeding, a challenge test against Streptococcus agalactiae was carried out using 10 fish from each tank. Fish fed ESE showed significantly increased serum lysozyme (SL), serum peroxidase (SP), alternative complement (ACH50), phagocytosis (PI), and respiratory burst (RB) compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The skin mucus lysozyme (SMLA) and skin peroxidase (SMPA) were stimulated in fish fed ESE diets. Dietary inclusion of ESE significantly (P < 0.05) promoted final body weight (FW), weight gain (WG), and specific growth rate (SGR); while a reduction in feed conversion ratio (FCR) was observed in fish fed 5 g kg−1 ESE, after 8 weeks post-feeding. The challenge study indicated that the relative percent survival (RSP) was 38.10%, 76.19%, 66.67%, and 47.62% in Diet 2, Diet 3, Diet 4, and Diet 5, respectively. Among the supplemented groups, dietary of 5 g kg−1 ESE showed significantly higher RPS and the highest resistance to S. agalactiae in comparison with other groups. In conclusion, supplementation of ESE (5 g kg−1) enhanced the humoral and mucosal immunity, promoted growth performance, and improved disease resistance of Nile tilapia against Streptococcus agalactiae