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VARIATION IN PHYSIO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME CULTIVARS OF SWEET POTATO

SURAYIA ZAKIR, MOHAMMAD SARWAR, JONATHAN ALLEN* , MUHAMMAD NISAR KHAN*** AND MASOOD SADIQ BUTT**

Abstract: The present study was conducted to provide proximate analysis and identification of acidic glycoprotein from sweet potato cultivars. For this purpose, two sweet potato cultivars via., White star (Pakistan) and Bearuegard (US) were analysed through BCA protein assay and electophoresis to determine true protien and identify protein banding pattern, respectively. When the sweet potatoes were fed to diabetic persons, the mean value of two hours postprandial blood glucose level were 296 mg/dl ± 111.34 in the control, glucose declined to 246 mg/dl ± 87.07 in White Star and marginally increased to 301 mg/dl ± 113.91 in Glucose + Caiapo treatment; substantially decreased to 216.29 ± 93.16 in White Star (Skin) despite fasting glucose level at 253 mg/dl and decreased to 257 mg/dl ± 98.90 in Beauregard treatment. The average value of two hours insulin varied from 5.21 µlŲ/mL ± 2.84 to 12.85 µlŲ/mL ± 6.35. The preliminary results supported the earlier studies that sweet potato has a blood glucose lowering effect on the person with diabetes and Caiapo showed the same results in normal subjects. White star and its skin showed better results than Beauregard as depicted by the postprandial glucose level and insulin response. These findings present a significant opportunity for the North Carolina, US and Pakistan farming community/ industry to consider developing new markets for sweet potato products that offer anti-diabetic health benefits.
 

Institute of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology (IAN&FT), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

* Department of Food Sciences, North Carolina State University (NCSU)
** Institute of Food Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad
*** Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Univ. Agric., Faisalabad