Maternal intake of dietary virgin coconut oil modifies essential fatty acids and causes low body weight and spiky fur in mice

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Azlina Ahmad-Annuar¹  Renuka Gunasekaran²  Siti Waheeda Mohd-Zin²  Noraishah Mydin Abdul-Aziz²  Mohammed Rafid Shaker³  Aminah Abdullah⁴ 

[1] Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Department of Anatomy, Brain Korea 21 Program, Korea University College of Medicine, 136-705, Seoul, Korea;School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia;

关键词: Coconut oil;    Essential fatty acids;    GCFID;    Body weight;    Spiky fur;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12906-017-1600-z

 received in 2015-12-16, accepted in 2017-01-24,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCoconut oil is commonly used as herbal medicine worldwide. There is limited information regarding its effects on the developing embryo and infant growth.MethodsWe investigated the effect of virgin coconut oil post-natally and until 6 weeks old in mice (age of maturity). Females were fed with either standard, virgin olive oil or virgin coconut oil diets 1 month prior to copulation, during gestation and continued until weaning of pups. Subsequently, groups of pups borne of the respective diets were continuously fed the same diet as its mother from weaning until 6 weeks old. Profiles of the standard and coconut oil diets were analysed by gas chromatography flame ionization detector (GCFID).ResultsAnalysis of the mean of the total weight gained/ loss over 6 weeks revealed that in the first 3 weeks, pups whose mothers were fed virgin coconut oil and virgin olive oil have a significantly lower body weight than that of standard diet pups. At 6 weeks of age, only virgin coconut oil fed pups exhibited significantly lower body weight. We report that virgin coconut oil modifies the fatty acid profiles of the standard diet by inducing high levels of medium chain fatty acids with low levels of essential fatty acids. Furthermore, pups borne by females fed with virgin coconut oil developed spiky fur.ConclusionOur study has demonstrated that virgin coconut oil could affect infant growth and appearance via maternal intake; we suggest the use of virgin coconut oil as herbal medicine to be treated with caution.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017