Effects of supplementation with kombucha and green banana flour on Wistar rats fed with a cafeteria diet.

INTRODUCTION: With the increase of chronic diseases as a consequence of the population's eating habits, there is also a growing interest in foods rich in bioactive compounds capable of mitigating these diseases. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of supplementation with kombucha and green banana flour (GBF) on Wistar rats fed with cafeteria diet (CAF). METHODS: The animals were randomized into five groups of seven animals each, which were fed with the following diets: Treatment 1 (T1): Control treatment/commercial feed; Treatment 2 (T2): cafeteria diet (CAF); Treatment 3 (T3): CAF + kombucha; Treatment 4 (T4): CAF + green banana flour (GBF); Treatment 5 (T5): CAF + GBF + kombucha. Daily weight gain, daily food consumption, feed conversion, blood glucose, total cholesterol and fractions, triglycerides, liver enzymes, antioxidant activity, and body composition were evaluated. RESULTS: T5 presented lower feed intake and less weight gain. Liver histology revealed vacuolization in all treatments except T1, which was confirmed by the results of liver enzymes. There was no increase in blood glucose, and changes were observed in the lipid profile of the animals. T1 had the lowest body fat and the highest protein levels. Differences were observed for the antioxidant capacity in the liver of animals among treatments. CONCLUSION: The intake of cafeteria diet altered the lipid and liver profile of the animals and the consumption of kombucha and GBF did not prevent these changes. The high polyphenols level of kombucha did not exert a hepatoprotective effect as an antioxidant. However, this supplementation generated greater satiety in the animals, leading to less weight gain until the end of the experiment.

ZnO-coated glass fibers for the analysis of trihalomethanes by headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography.

Li(2)O-ZrO(2)-BaO-SiO(2) glass fibers were produced and their surfaces were coated with zinc oxide. The fibers' surface morphology was examined by scanning electron microscopy and the zinc oxide layer was characterized by mapping the K(α) and L(α) lines of zinc by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results indicated that a homogeneous and porous layer of ZnO was formed on the fibers' surface. This layer was subjected to a simultaneous determination of trihalomethanes using headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography. The study was conducted after evaluating the ideal time of incubation (15 min), extraction (15 min) and desorption (10 min), as well as the effect of the addition of salt (15%, m/v) on the analytical response. A good linear dynamic range was observed individually for trihalomethanes aqueous solutions containing 20 µg L(-1) and 500 µg L(-1) of trichloromethane, 15 µg L(-1) and 250 µg L(-1) of dichlorobromomethane and dibromochloromethane and 10 µg L(-1) and 100 µg L(-1) of tribromomethane, with all the compounds showing correlation coefficients higher than 0.9900.