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African plant foods rich in non-starch polysaccharides reduce postprandial blood glucose and insulin concentrations in healthy human subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Uchenna A. Onyechi ,
Patricia A. Judd  and
Peter R. Ellis
Uchenna A. Onyechi
Affiliation:
Divisions of Life and Health Sciences, King's College London, Kensington Campus, Campden Hill Road, London W8 7AH, UK
Patricia A. Judd
Affiliation:
Divisions of Life and Health Sciences, King's College London, Kensington Campus, Campden Hill Road, London W8 7AH, UK
Peter R. Ellis*
Affiliation:
Divisions of Life and Health Sciences, King's College London, Kensington Campus, Campden Hill Road, London W8 7AH, UK
*
*Corresponding author:Dr Peter R. Ellis, fax +44 (0) 171 333 4082, email p.ellis@kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract

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The effects of two vegetable flours, prepared from the African plants Detarium senegalense Gmelin, a legume, and Cissus rotundifolia, a shrub, on postprandial blood glucose and insulin concentrations in human subjects, were investigated. Chemical analysis indicated that these flours contained significant amounts of NSP. The detarium in particular was found to be a rich source of water-soluble NSP (SNSP). The flours were incorporated into two types of breakfast meal, a stew meal and a wheat bread meal, containing 50 g and 70 g available carbohydrate respectively. Both meals also contained 10–12g NSP, the major fraction of which was SNSP. Control and fibre-rich meals were consumed on separate days in randomized order by two different groups of subjects (n 5, stew meals; n 10, bread meals). Venous blood samples were taken at fasting (0 min) and postprandially at 30 min intervals for 2·5 h and the plasma analysed for glucose and insulin. Compared with the controls, detarium and cissus meals elicited significant reductions (P < 0·006) in plasma glucose levels at most postprandial time points and for area-under-the-curve (AUC) values (AUC reductions 38–62%). Significant reductions (P < 0·002) in plasma insulin levels at various postprandial time points and for AUC values were also seen after detarium and cissus breads (AUC reductions 43 and 36% respectively), but not after the fibre-rich stew meals. SNSP and starch are possibly the main, but not the only, components responsible for the glucose- and insulin-lowering effects of cissus flour. The main SNSP fraction of detarium, identified as a high-molecular-weight xyloglucan, is likely to be a primary factor in determining the physiological activity of detarium flour.

Keywords

Dietary fibreStarchPostprandial carbohydrate metabolism
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 80 , Issue 5 , November 1998 , pp. 419 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1998

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