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Processed Oat Hulls as Potential Dietary Fiber Sources in Rats¹

Jesús M. López-Guisa^*, Matthew C. Harned^*, Richard Dubielzig, Sambasiva C. Rao and Judith A. Marlett^1,2,

^* Department of Nutritional Sciences School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 ConAgra Flour Milling Company, Omaha, NE 68110

Processed oat hull products were evaluated as potential dietary fiber sources. Three levels, 5, 10 and 15%, of processed oat hulls, bleached oat hulls or oat hulls coated with starch, were added to purified diets and fed to groups of rats for 6 wk. Control diets consisted of 5, 10 or 15% -cellulose or commercial nonpurified diet. None of the oat hull products at the three levels tested had any negative effect on rat growth. Fresh and dry fecal weights increased linearly as the concentration of dietary fiber increased and were highly correlated with fiber intake (r = 0.95). Apparent digestibility of neutral detergent fiber in all diets was low and apparent calcium absorption was not consistently affected by any diet. None of the oat hull test diets lowered plasma or hepatic cholesterol levels, a finding consistent with the failure to detect mixed-linkage ß-glucans in any of the processed oat hull products. Detailed analysis of the processed oat hull fibers also indicated that they were >95% insoluble fiber and high in cellulose and xylans. Light-microscopy histology of kidney, spleen, pancreas, stomach, duodenum, ileum and colon was normal. The extent of hepatocellular destruction produced by the cholesterol (1%) and cholic acid (0.2%) added to the diet to induce hypocholesterolemia was independent of the kind and amount of dietary fiber.

KEY WORDS: • dietary fiber • oat hulls • hypocholesterolemia • calcium absorption

¹ Supported in part by Dupont Co., Wilmington, DE; Canadian Harvest, St. Thomas, Ontario; National Institutes of Health (NIH) Contract No. N01-CN-45181; NIH Grant No. DK-21712; and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

² To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 26 October 1987. Revision accepted 4 April 1988.