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Oral Loading Of Coconut Oil Does Not Raise Homocysteine And Total Cholesterol And Other Metabolic And Hematological Parameters in Adult Female Rats

Objective: Data on effect of administration of coconut oil on homocysteine level in blood and on various hematologic and metabolic parameters in animals or humans are scanty. Hence we attempted to evaluate the effect of oral administration of graded doses of this oil on homocysteine and on various hematologic and metabolic parameters in female rats. Methods: Adult female Sprague Dawley rats were divided into control study groups and given oral doses of 1 ml, 2 ml and 4 ml coconut oil twice per day respectively for a period of 30 days. Control group of rats received tap water. Oral loading of graded doses of coconut oil was done continuously for the study period. At the end of the period of study, the rats were lightly anaesthetized with ether and blood samples collected by puncturing the heart, for analysis of various parameters. Homocysteine levels in blood samples were analyzed using homocysteine reagent kit. Levels of red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC), hemoglobin (Hg), platelets,lymphocytes and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were determined using a Hematology Blood Analyzer. Metabolic parameters such as cholesterol, triglycerides, urea,uric acid,creatinine and protein were analyzed by specific analytical kits. Concentrations of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and total anti-oxidant activity (TAO) were assessed by specific analytical kits. Data were analyzed for possible statistical significance, using a SPSS data analytical package. Results: Oral feeding of coconut oil for 30 continuous days did not significantly alter homocysteine level even when oil was administered at a massive dose of 4 ml/day for 30 days and did not alter any of the hematologic parameters studied, compared to control animals even when animals were fed huge dose of the edible oil. Administration of coconut oil appeared to decrease WBC, Hg , platelet and lymphocyte blood concentrations in treated rats , but the difference was not statistically significant (ANOVATest; p>0.05).However, platelet concentration was significantly lower (p<0.05) in rats receiving coconut oil compared to control group rats. Coconut oil administration did not alter the concentrations of protein, cholesterol, urea, triglyceride s, uric acid and creatinine in treated groups of rats significantly (Student’s t-test, p>0.05) compared to those of control rats. SOD,GPX and TAO levels in control and treated groups were significantly higher (ANOVA test ; p>0.05) than controls. Conclusions: We conclude that oral administration of coonut oil in adult female rats even in massive doses does not cause any significant alteration in homocysteine level and well as other hematologic and metabolic parameters. Detailed studies are currently underway to assess significance of these findings on human and community health. Introduction Coconut oil has been widely used as a cooking medium in many asian and south east asian countries for many centuries. Considering its high content of saturated fatty acids [1], coconut oil is labelled as saturated edible oil . Research reports on the benefits or ill effects of its use in animals as well as humans are scanty. .Some researchers have implicated use of coconut oil to be associated with possible hypertensive and cardio-toxic effect ill-effects (2,3,4,5), but some others were unable to corroborate the above suspected noxious effects. Kumar [6] reported no increased risk of cardiovascular incidents in patients using this edible oil in adult men while Sirkar& Kansra[7] reported in fact a beneficial effect of coconut oil compared to another edible oil, sunflower oil in reducing risk from diabetes as well as cardiac problems in humans. Interestingly, Prior et al [8] reported no increased risk with intake of saturated fats such as coconut oil in causing ischemic cardiac attacks as well . Further an inverse relationship of ischemic stroke in men using greater amounts of saturated fats has been reported [9]. Another report concluded absence of increased association of cardio-vascular disease , using a low fat dietary regimen in randomly selected women population [10] Although the effect of virgin coconut oil on disposition of cholesterol and some fatty acids in rats and hematologic and metabolic parameters has been reported by many investigators including our research group [11,12] no detailed report, to our knowledge exists examining the effect of coconut oil on blood level of homocysteine, one of the crucial factors reported to be associated with increased heart attacks ( 13,14) in the human population In view of the contrasting findings relating to use of coconut oil in daily life as a cooking medium or food constituent in humans and considering the absence of any detailed or reported studies relating to long term use of coconut oil and effect on hematologic and metabolic parameters in pregnant women or pregnant animals, we thought it interesting to explore whether coconut oil administration per se in large quantities can alter one of the main cardio-toxic parameter, homocysteine in blood of treated animals. Material and Methods Sprague Dawley female rats weighing between 220-240 g were used for the study. Animals used for the study were bred in the Medical Faculty animal house and maintained in individual polypropylene cages in a room maintained at 25+1 degree centigrade room temperature, with alternating 12 hour light 12 hour dark cycle. Body weights of all rats were determined before the beginning of the study. 3 groups of 5 rats received 0.5 ml, 1 ml and 2 ml coconut oil(Parachute Brand, Mumbai, India) orally twice per day respectively for a continuous period of 30 days while the control group were given tap water during the study period. All groups of animals were allowed diet and water ad libitum during the study period. After 30 days of oil administration , all rats were weighed and lightly anesthetized by ether and sacrificed for collection of blood and tissue samples. Hematologic parameters such as RBC,WBC, platelets, Hg, lym-