Nutritional composition, antidiabetic and antilipidemic potentials of flour blends made from unripe plantain, soybean cake, and rice bran.

Abstract: Life style and diet are the major causes of the astronomic increase in the number of people living with diabetes mellitus in the developing countries. With the cost of treatments beyond the reach of many, this study aims at using cheap and locally available materials—unripe plantain, rice bran, and soybean cake, to develop functional dough meals and assess their potential for the management of the disease. After preliminary testing, three different blends were selected for high protein and crude fiber contents and used for further analyses. The essential amino acid (40.2–41.5%) of the formulated diets surpasses the 39% recommended for ideal protein food. The dough meals lowered blood glucose by ∼76% in diabetic rats while stabilizing the lipid profiles of the animals to normal physiological range. Sensory evaluation showed wide acceptance among consumers and highly recommended for the rural poor living with burden of the disease. Practical applications: The use of easily accessible and cheap food material will be an effective tool in managing the burden of diabetes ravaging many in the developing countries. The combination of plantain, soybean cake, and rice bran was able to produce functional dough with good nutritional composition, pasting properties, and antidiabetic potential; lowering serum glucose of diabetic rats by more than 70%. Thus, the developed functional dough will be a promising diet that can be recommended for patients with low income suffering from diabetes, especially in Sub‐Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]