Abstract
Recent studies on the dietary management of dehydrated children with oral rehydration solution (ORS) showed that maximizing nutrient intake during treatment can curtail the nutritional deterioration of an episode of acute diarrhoea. The viscosity of a 10% or 15% (w/v) rice flour solution can be reduced to that of a drinkable solution by appropriate incubation and partial hydrolysis of rice starch with a commercial -amylase. Cooking the solution for 5 minutes at 90°C inactivates the enzyme. When 0.32 ml of -amylase enzyme was added, the viscosity of a 10% rice-based oral rehydration solution (RB-ORS) measured at 0.3 revolution per minute declined from 50,539 to 636 centipoise (cp), and when 0.96 ml of enzyme was added to a 15% RB-ORS, the viscosity declined from 170,258 to 1,283 cp. The osmolality of enzyme-treated RB-ORS without electrolytes was 5 mOsm; that of the electrolyte mixture alone was 160 mOsm; that of 10% RB-ORS with electrolytes was 225 mOsm; and that of 15% RB-ORS with electrolytes was 295 mOsm. The 10% and 15% rice flour solutions incubated with -amylase can be converted to easy-to-drink solutions that could potentially be used as ORS with greater nutritional value than current glucose-based solutions. Clinical trials are necessary to test the safety and efficacy of these enzyme-treated RB-ORS.