Red Palm Oil (RPO) May Enhance Chronic Inflammation Through Disturbance in Lipid Metabolism

Several studies have been published on lipid lowering effect of red palm oil (RPO) with little known about health impact of differential dosage. In this study, we examined lipid profile of hyperlipidemia-induced wistar rats fed with varying quantity of RPO supplementation (15ml/kg, 20ml/kg and 25ml/kg feed). A total of 30 male wistar rats were procured and randomly divided into five groups (A, B, C, D and E) with 6 rats in each group. Group C, D and E received 15 ml/kg, 20ml/kg and 25ml/kg of RPO respectively (thoroughly mixed with high fat diet). No force feeding or oral gavage procedures were employed. While rats in group A were fed with standard rat chow, group B animals fed on high fat diet only and neither of the two groups received RPO supplementation. Plasma concentration of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), Albumin, low density lipoproteins (LDL-C), high density lipoproteins (HDL-C), and total proteins (TP) were assessed at the end of the experiment that lasted 4 weeks. In addition to the lipid lowering effect observed in RPO supplementation groups (C, D, E) compared to fatty diet fed only (group B) as widely reported in many studies, both the LDL-C and TG appeared to rise with more RPO supplementation. Findings also revealed the lipid lowering effect more pronounced on triglycerides than the low density lipoproteins. TP in group E was significantly higher compared to group A and B (P < 0.05) and RPO supplementation had a tendency to increase plasma TP.