Effect of Soya “Lecithin” on Number of Clostridia in Rat Feces

Summary The feces of rats fed a diet of horsemeat or horsemeat and dried skim milk, regularly contained a number of anaerobic micro-organisms which form black colonies on Wilson-Blair medium plates. These organisms were presumed to be mainly clostridia, especially C. perfringens. Addition of a soybean “lecithin” compound (soybean “lecithin” homogenized in skim milk and dried) supplying 8.3% phosphatides to a horsemeat-skim milk diet greatly reduced the clostridia count of the feces. Under the same conditions, the addition to the diet of soybean oil, choline, inositol or ethanolamine singly or in combination at the same levels supplied by the soybean “lecithin” compound resulted in no significant change in the number of these organisms. Therefore, the reduction in fecal Clostridia count observed on addition of soybean lecithin to the diet was probably due to one or more of the soybean phosphatides.