Research Article
Nurliyani, Madarina Julia, Eni
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to study the effect of arrowroot cookies on levels of fecal secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) and fecal physical properties of children under five years. Total of 17 healthy children aged 2 to 5 years at a Day Care Facility in Yogyakarta received the following treatments: arrowroot cookies and wheat cookies (as control). Intervention of cookies as much as 30 g per child per day for 10 days, and the consumption of cookies was recorded per day. The proportion of arrowroot or wheat flour in the cookies was 41.80%. The average of fecal sIgA (3055 μg/ml) and pH (7.05) of intervented children with arrowroot cookies showed no significantly different from the control. However, the fecal moisture content of children treated with arrowroot cookies was higher (79.23%) compared to the control (73.75%) (P<0.05). Therefore, the arrowroot cookies could provide a mucosal immune response similar to wheat cookies, and improve the physical properties of faeces become softer.