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Hydrogen Production in the Rat Following Ingestion of Raffinose, Stachyose and Oligosaccharide-Free Bean Residue

Western Regional Research Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley, California 94710

Raffinose and stachyose were compared to cooked California Small White^* beans (CSW) containing 4% -oligosaccharides (stachyose and raffinose) and to oligosaccharide-tree CSW solids (residue from hexane and 70% ethanol extraction of CSW) as sources of hydrogen when ingested by rats maintained in life support systems. If the oligosaccharide content were the only hydrogen source in CSW, it would have had to be 25 times as potent as CSW, but raffinose was only five times and stachyose seven times as potent as CSW. Oligosaccharide-free residue was 0.4 to 0.5 as active as CSW. Hydrogen producing potencies of stachyose and raffinose were enhanced by feeding in combinations with residue. The increases in hydrogen production from the combinations were more than additive. Thus, CSW contains at least one 70% alcohol-insoluble substance which, in addition to the oligosaccharides, is essential to bring about quantitatively the physiological response to whole beans observed in rats.

KEY WORDS: • flatus • beans • stachyose • raffinose

^* Reference to a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of that product by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.

Manuscript received 5 August 1975.