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Stimulation of Basal Metabolic Rate of Rats Fed Dried-grass Silage and Silage Flavonoids¹

Division of Plant Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506

Dried-grass silage (DGS), which was shown in previous work to contain a factor(s) which stimulated the basal metabolic rate (BMR) of rats, was fractionated with various solvents and neutral and basic lead acetates into eight fractions. Metabolism trials were conducted to determine the influence of DGS or several of these fractions on the basal metabolic rate of male rats. The flavonoid content of the fractions fed to the rats was monitored by two-dimensional paper chromatography. One fraction was shown to be devoid of flavonoids and to decrease the BMR. One fraction containing flavonoids had no effect on BMR. The other fractions assayed contained flavonoids and increased BMR above that of rats fed a control ration. Fractions 7 and 8 were shown to be pure flavonoids. When rats were fed a total of 6.9 mg of fraction 7 or 4.1 mg of fraction 8 over a 7-day period, the BMR was elevated an average of 21% or 17%, respectively.

KEY WORDS: • basal metabolic rate • flavonoids • grass silage

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Morgantown, as Scientific Paper no. 1255.

² Present address: 179 Luker Road, Allahabad V. P., India.

Manuscript received 5 March 1973.