Authors : Baby Joseph, M.V. Jeevitha and S. Sujatha
Abstract: Spirulina is widely used as food because of its rich nutrient contents. They play an important role in gut enzyme activity. The present study determined the digestive tract enzyme activity in spirulina administered Swiss albino mice using a set of biochemical parameters. The experimental group of Swiss albino mice was administered to two different concentrations of spirulina, i.e., 3 and 6% spirulina with 20 days experiment. When the mice were fed with 6% spirulina weight loss has been observed in the experimental animal. Weight loss has been observed about 2.0±0.72 μg mL-1 had been noticed when the Swiss albino mice is treated with concentration of 6% spirulina based probiotic feed. By contrast, weight gain of 5.16±2.68 mg was also observed when the experimental mice fed with 3% probiotic food. These results represented the variation in the enzyme activity after the treatment with experimental feed such as amylase level showed 18.9 μg mL-1 in the foregut and 11.3 μg mL-1 in the hindgut. Lipase level was 45.8 μg mL-1 in foregut and 47.8 μg mL-1 in hindgut. Catalase activity drastically decreased in mice treated with 6% spirulina and enzyme activity of lipase and catalase activity increased in mice treated with 3% spirulina. This study suggests that the spirulina provided in little amount does not show much variation, whereas the spirulina taken in high concentration shows slight changes in the production of digestive enzymes on the Swiss albino mice.
Baby Joseph, M.V. Jeevitha and S. Sujatha, 2012. Impacts of Spirulina-Based Probiotic Feed on Swiss Albino Mice and its Effects on Digestive Enzymes. Agricultural Journal, 7: 416-420.