Effect of Awamori lees on growth, serum and liver lipid concentration in rats fed a high cholesterol diet

Awamori lees (AL), a by-product generated during manufacturing of Awamori, is rich in protein, dietary fiber and organic acids. As large amounts of AL have been dumped to date, this study attempted to develop a usage for AL as a feedstuff and/or as a functional food material. We investigated the effect of AL on growth and serum and liver lipid concentrations in 5-week-old rats fed a diet with 3% cholesterol for 2 weeks followed by diets supplemented with 5, 25 and 50% AL for 4 additional weeks. The body weight gain and feed intake for each AL-supplemented diet group was the same as that for the control group. Liver weight, and serum and liver total cholesterol concentrations were dose-dependent decreased in the AL-supplemented groups; however, the serum HDL-cholesterol level was unaffected by AL intake. The 50% AL group showed significantly lower serum and liver triglyceride concentrations. Fecal weight increased with the amount of AL in the diet, with a 5-fold increase in total bile acid content in the 50% AL group. These results show that AL can effectively reduce lipid concentrations, suggesting its use as feedstuff and/or functional food material.