Abstract
Twenty four school children of 7–9 years of age were divided into two groups of six boys and six girls each. One group was given a daily supplement of ‘Suji halwa’, a sweet snack made with semolina and red palm oil, supplying 2400 µg of β-carotene and the second group was the control group which was given 600 µg of oral vitamin A palmitate, for 60 days. Vitamin A status before and after supplementation was assessed by the Modified Relative Dose Response Assay (MRDR). Results indicated that serum vitamin A levels increased from the basal level of 0.86±0.13 µmol/l to 1.89±0.23 µmol/l in the Red Palmoil (RPO) group and from 0.74±0.09 to 1.94±0.21 µmol/l in the control vitamin A group. Dehydroretinol/Retinol (DR/R) ratio decreased from 0.073±0.025 to 0.023±0.004 in the RPO group and from 0.090±0.023 to 0.023±0.004 in the vitamin A group, indicating liver saturation with vitamin A after feeding RPO snacks, comparable to synthetic vitamin A. This study indicates that RPO is an efficient source of β-carotene which is found to be bioavailable in all the subjects tested, hence it can be used for supplementary feeding programmes to combat vitamin A deficiency in target population.
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Manorama, R., Brahmam, G.N.V. & Rukmini, C. Red palm oil as a source of β-carotene for combating vitamin A deficiency. Plant Food Hum Nutr 49, 75–82 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01092524
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01092524