Diet Suplementasi Ekstrak Umbi Jalar dari Empat Varietas yang Kaya Asam Folat Serta Pengaruhnya terhadap Fertilitas Induk dan Morfologi Janin Mencit

Abstract

Folic acid plays role in DNA and new cell synthesis so that it has an effect on the fertility and fetal congenital defects. The aim of this research was aimed to study the folic acid content in the extract from four varieties of sweet potato that widely grown in North Sumatera i.e : purple, orange, yellow and honey tuber- flesh sweet potato. The research was conducted in four steps i.e : the observation of sweet potato tuber and flour, physcochemical characteristic of making the sweet potato extracts, analyzed the folic acid content and the anthocyanin content of sweet potato extracts, and then in vivo testing of the effect of dietary folic acid on mice fertility and fetal mice morphology. Dietary of folic acid was given in there different level i.e low (5μg), medium (10μg) and high (15μg). The result showed that the sweet potato variety gave the highly significant effect (P<0,01) on moisture and starch content of tuber, and proximate composition (moistrure, ash, fat, protein and carbohydrate) of sweet potato flour. Folic acid only found in purple sweet potato extract (9,44 mg/kg) and not found in other sweet potato extracts. It relates with the high anthocyanin content (175,4162 mg/100 g) in purple sweet potato extract. Dietary folic acid at high level (15μg) gave the positive effect on mice fertility, number of fetuses, weigh, and size of mice fetus.