Hanan M. A. AL-Sayed, Nahla S. Zidan, M. A. Abdelaleem

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition; mineral and vitamin contents; total ‎phenolic and flavonoids contents; antioxidant activity of the quinoa seeds powder (QSP) and their ‎effect on diabetic rats. The higher ‎concentrations of minerals were K (3441.95 mg/Kg) and Mg (1147.32 mg/Kg) and quinoa seeds ‎contained a considerable amount of riboflavin (B2), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid (B9), cobalamin ‎‎(B12), alpha tocopherol (E) and beta carotene equal to 0.60, 5.83, 6.80, 0.27, 2.010 and 0.127 ‎mg/100g, respectively. The total phenolic and total flavonoids content of quinoa seeds powder were ‎‎2.63 mg GAE/g, and 0.53 mg CE/g, respectively. Antioxidant activity was measured as 2,2-diphenyl-‎‎1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (DPPH) and 2,2´-azinobis (3-ethyl benzo thiazoline-6-‎sulphonic acid) radical cation (ABTS) were 0.29 and 4.38 mg TE/g, respectively. Sensory properties ‎of both quinoa pudding and quinoa soup showed insignificant differences. However, in biological ‎experiment, the blood and the glucose levels after ‎consumption of quinoa at different concentrations were reduced from 236.7 mg/dl to ‎‎98.7mg/dl at 40% quinoa and to 120.3 mg/dl at 30% quinoa with an average fasting of normal level ‎of 64.3 mg/dl. Furthermore, the thyroid hormones T3 and T4 were‏ ‏reduced significantly after feeding ‎rats on quinoa seeds powder at different concentrations. Histopathological determination of pancreas ‎of diabetic rats revealed that interlobular inflammatory cells infiltration where pancreas of diabetic ‎rats fed on 20, 30 and 40% quinoa powder revealed no histopathological changes‎.