Potential of barley enriched yogurt to improve probiotic growth for the management of hypercholesterolemia

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of barley bran and flour-enriched yogurt against hypercholesterolemia in rats. Purposely, barley-enriched yogurts were prepared, and their quality characteristics including physicochemical, viscosity, textural and sensory analysis of functional yogurts were performed. The enrichment of 6% barley flour and barley bran in yogurt improved the viscosity, textural, physicochemical and sensory attributes. The barley bran and flour-enriched yogurt improved the growth of probiotics in T3 and T6. A hypercholesterolemic rats study was conducted and observed that lipid profile improved and glucose significantly decreased in response to functional yogurts. The improvement in functions of ALT (71.83 +/- 1.61, 67.03 +/- 1.67 and 62.33 +/- 2.08 U/L), AST (245.17 +/- 1.04, 231.33 +/- 3.06 and 223.60 +/- 2.79 U/L) and ALP (271.33 +/- 1.53, 208.83 +/- 1.26 and 189.37 +/- 0.78 U/L) was observed G1, G4, and G5 groups, accordingly. It was concluded that barley bran exhibited greater potential than barley flour in the improvement of yogurt quality and hypercholesterolemia management.