Nutrition rehabilitation of undernourished children utilizing Spiruline and Misola

Background: Malnutrition constitutes a public health problem throughout the world and
particularly in developing countries.
Aims: The objective of the study is to assess the impact of an elementary integrator composed of
Spiruline (Spirulina platensis) and Misola (millet, soja, peanut) produced at the Centre Medical St
Camille (CMSC) of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on the nutritional status of undernourished
children.
Materials and methods: 550 undernourished children of less than 5 years old were enrolled in
this study, 455 showed severe marasma, 57 marasma of medium severity and 38 kwashiorkor plus
marasma. We divided the children randomly into four groups: 170 were given Misola (731 ± 7 kcal/
day), 170 were given Spiruline plus traditional meals (748 ± 6 kcal/day), 170 were given Spiruline
plus Misola (767 ± 5 kcal/day). Forty children received only traditional meals (722 ± 8 kcal/day) and
functioned as the control group. The duration of this study was eight weeks.
Results and Discussion: Anthropometrics and haematological parameters allowed us to
appreciate both the nutritional and biological evolution of these children. The rehabilitation with
Spiruline plus Misola (this association gave an energy intake of 767 ± 5 kcal/day with a protein
assumption of 33.3 ± 1.2 g a day), both greater than Misola or Spiruline alone, seems to correct
weight loss more quickly.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that Misola, Spiruline plus traditional meals or Spiruline plus
Misola are all a good food supplement for undernourished children, but the rehabilitation by
Spiruline plus Misola seems synergically favour the nutrition rehabilitation better than the simple
addition of protein and energy intake.
Published: 23 January 2006
Nutrition Journal 2006, 5:3 doi:10.1186/1475-2891-5-3
Received: 13 October 2005
Accepted: 23 January 2006
This article is available from: http://www.nutritionj.com/content/5/1/3
© 2006 Simpore et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.