Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism

Research Article

Formation of Short-Chain Fatty Acids, Excretion of Anthocyanins, and Microbial Diversity in Rats Fed Blackcurrants, Blackberries, and Raspberries

Table 3

Feed and dietary fibre intake, body weight gain, caecal content, caecal tissue weight, caecal pH, dietary fibre fermentability, and faecal wet and dry weight in rats fed diets containing blackcurrant, blackberry, and raspberry, with the same diets supplemented with L. plantarum HEAL19.


	Blackcurrant				Blackberry				Raspberry
	−HEAL19		+HEAL19		−HEAL19		+HEAL19		−HEAL19		+HEAL19
	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Mean	SE	Berry	Pro	Berry × Pro

Feed intake (g/d)	11.9	0.01	11.9	0.03	11.1	0.3	11.2	0.31	12.0	0.0	12.0	0.0	<0.001¹	NS	NS
Dietary fibre intake (g/5 d)	4.8	0.0	4.8	0.0	4.5	0.1	4.5	0.1	4.8	0.0	4.8	0.0	<0.001¹	NS	NS
Body weight gain (g/g feed)	0.17^ab	0.01	0.24^a	0.01	0.17^ab	0.03	0.13^b	0.03	0.22^a	0.01	0.18^ab	0.02	0.018	NS	0.016
Caecal content (g)	2.7	0.15	2.4	0.18	1.8	0.08	1.9	0.11	2.0	0.08	1.9	0.11	<0.001²	NS	NS
Caecal tissue weight (g)	0.7	0.02	0.7	0.01	0.4	0.01	0.4	0.01	0.4	0.01	0.5	0.01	<0.001³	NS	NS
Caecal pH	7.2	0.08	7.1	0.04	7.2	0.07	7.1	0.07	7.2	0.09	7.0	0.08	NS	NS	NS
Fibre fermentability (%)	72.3	3.0	77.8	2.0	64.4	1.0	61.8	1.0	61.3	1.2	62.5	1.5	<0.001²	NS	NS
Faecal wet wt (g/5 d)	16.1^c	1.2	13.1^b	0.8	9.0^a	0.3	9.3^a	0.4	10.1^a	0.3	10.2^a	0.3	<0.001	NS	0.032
Faecal dry wt (g/5 d)	7.2^a	0.8	6.2^ab	0.5	6.4^ab	0.3	7.1^a	0.3	5.7^b	0.2	6.3^ab	0.2	0.032	NS	0.008
Faecal fibre residue (g/5 d)	1.3	0.2	1.1	0.1	1.6	0.06	1.7	0.08	1.8	0.09	1.8	0.1	<0.001⁴	NS	NS

Mean values with their SEM for seven rats per group.
¹Values for groups fed blackberry were significantly lower than those fed blackcurrant and raspberry.
²Values for groups fed blackcurrant were significantly higher than those fed blackberry and raspberry.
³Values for groups fed blackcurrant were significantly higher than those fed blackberry and raspberry (), and groups fed raspberry were significantly higher than groups fed blackberry ().
⁴Values for groups fed blackcurrant were significantly lower than those fed blackberry and raspberry.
^a,b,cMean values within a row, with unlike superscripts are significantly different ().