SPP from Sweet Potato Reduces Blood Fat Levels
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In a recent study, mice fed with a high fat diet had remarkably lower body weight after one month of consuming SPP, a sweet potato peptide. This peptide was obtained from the enzymatic digestion of proteins in waste water during processing of sweet potato. This indicates that the peptide is responsible for digesting fats but further research is required to find out if this also occurs in human beings.
Dr. Koji Ishiguro from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Japan and his colleagues sought to discover a new way to use waste from sweet potato processing, so they analyzed the effect of proteins present in this waste water on mice.
“We discard large volumes of wastewater that have sweet potato proteins — we assumed that these might show effect on the body weight and fat tissue,” mentioned Dr. Ishiguro. “Finding other uses for the sweet potato proteins in wastewater might be good for the industry, environment, and moreover potentially for health.”
Effects of SPP
The researchers tested three groups of mice with high fat diets. They then fed one group with protein digest — sweet potato peptide (SPP) — at a high concentration and one group with a low concentration. After 28 days, they weighed the mice and assessed their liver mass and fatty tissue. They examined blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, in addition to leptin which manages appetite and adiponectin which controls metabolic syndrome.
Mice that were provided SPP had remarkably lower body weight and liver mass. Mice given with SPP also had lower cholesterol and triglycerides, and higher levels of the appetite and lipid-controlling hormones. The results indicate that SPP helps in appetite suppression and can manage lipid metabolism in mice provided with high fat diets.
“We were amazed that SPP decreased the levels of fat in mice and that it seems to play a role in managing appetite suppression molecules,” noted Dr. Ishiguro. “These results show potential, while offering new choices for utilizing wastewater rather than throwing it away. We expect SPP to be useful food stuff in the future.”