[Objective] This study was to explore the effect of purple yam on the nutritional and physiological functions of rats.[Method] Forty SD rats were randomly divided into four groups with ten rats in each group which were reared with artificial semisynthetic feed added with 10% steamed yam powder.The four groups,the casein（CK） group which was used as the control,the purple yam（PY） group,the Tiegun yam（TY） group and common Huai yam（HY） group,were supplied with feed of equal content of energy,protein and fat.The rats were pair-fed for 56 days to observe changes of relevant nutritional and physiological indices.[Result] There were no significant differences of body weight,food conversion rate and organ indices between rats in PY group and CK group.Mean corpuscular hemoglobin in PY group was significantly lower than that in CK group;hemoglobin showed no significant difference with that in CK group;eosnophils was lower than that in CK group.Low density lipoprotein-cholesterol,total cholesterol and atherogenic index in PY group were lower than that in the other three groups;anti-atherogenic index was the highest among the four groups,while showing no significant difference;triglyceride content was lower than that in CK group.Among the antioxidant indices,the activity of catalase and superoxide dismutase were higher than that in CK group,while malondialdehyde content was lower than that in CK group.[Conclusion] Purple yam showed the trend of reducing the content of blood glucose,total cholesterol,low density lipoprotein-cholesterol,triglyceride,malondialdehyde,and raising the activity of glutathione peroxidase,superoxide dismutase and catalase,thus having certain antioxidative function.
