Effects of Some Tropical Plant Oils Supplemented Diet on Blood Serum Lipid Profile of Albino Rats

Abstract

Oils were extracted from African pear (Dacryodes edulis) fruits, bullet pear (Cemarium schweinfurthii) fruits, melon (Colocynthis citrullus) seeds and groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea). Oil yields from each of these plants crops were not less than 52% and the fatty acids range were palmitic (19.25-27.37%), stearic (16.30-21.09%), oleic (15.07-26.75%), linoleic (18.60-26.10%) and linolenic (13.20-16.40%). The oils were respectively used at 10% level as supplement to formulate rat feeds. The supplemented feed and control feed (feed with none of these oils) were each fed to a group (seven) of albino rats for sixty days. The effects of the feeds on the blood  serum lipid profile of the albino rats were determined. The albino rat group fed with bullet pear fruit oil feed recorded the highest weight gain of 57.89%. There were no significant differences (p < 0.05) in the total cholesterol, triglyceride, and high density lipoprotein contents in the blood serum of the albino rats. However, the low density lipoprotein cholesterol content of 26.43mg/ dl in the blood serum of albino rat in group on bullet pear fruit oil supplemented feed was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than the values obtained for the rat groups on the other oil supplemented feeds. Regression analysis results showed that there was no relationship between some of the fatty acids of the plant oils and blood serum triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol except that of palmitic and stearic acids of bullet pear fruit oil which showed strong relationship with total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Keywords: Pear fruits, groundnut, melon, fatty acids, cholesterol.