Evaluation of selected agricultural solid wastes on biochemical profile and liver histology of Albino rats

Abstract

Wheat bran, groundnut shell, watermelon peel and corn bran were analyzed for chemical composition and amino acid profile. A feeding trial was conducted to assess their effect on biochemical profile and liver histology of rats. Watermelon peel obtained the highest dry matter content (91.93±0.03 g/100g), followed by groundnut shell meal (89.57±0.31 g/100g). Carbohydrate content ranged between 35.28±0.08 g/100g and 65.19±0.13 g/100g. Crude protein content ranged between 6.53±0.06 g/100g (groundnut shell meal) and 10.88±0.02 g/100g (wheat bran). Liver histopathology revealed normal architecture. The nutritional analyses of the wastes revealed rich nutritional content which may be explored for feed ingredient in livestock production. Further processing of these wastes may further enhance their nutritional composition; thereby providing alternative cheap animal feed for improved animal production and consequently improved animal protein consumption in developing countries.

Keywords

• corn bran
• groundnut shell
• environmental pollution
• feeding trial
• liver histology
• watermelon peel