Health Oils from the Tree of Life

The palm tree has a long history of providing man with useful materials for his daily life. None is more important than the oils obtained from the palm nut. Coconut and palm kernel oils were recognized as health oils in Ayurvedic medicine almost 4000 years ago. The same health effects were also found in Sanskrit medicine for mother’s milk. Mention was made that freshly expressed human milk was adopted as an "antibiotic" after eye surgery. Modern research has now found a common link between these two natural health products----their fat or lipid content. For over thirty years our lipid laboratory has pioneered finding relationships between natural and synthetic lipids and their biological activity. Our studies indicated that the fatty acids and monoglycerides found in these two natural products had extraordinary antimicrobial. properties. Over a period of 30 years my colleagues and I screened other lipids hoping too improve on nature. During this period we screened some 300 lipids and other structures for antimicrobial activity. We failed and so I returned to nature for clues. The medium chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found primarily in these two tropical oils and mothers milk have miraculous healing power. It is rare in the history of medicine to find substances that have such useful properties and still be without toxicity or even harmful side effects. My students and I then vigorously pursued the industrial and medical application of the most active species, monolaurin. The highly purified monoglyceride is better known as Lauricidin® rather than simply monolaurin since the usual commercial monolaurin is only 4555% pure and has no antimicrobial properties. The first utilization of monolaurin was the incorporation into margarine as a food preservative and then into a sanitizer for the prevention of bovine mastitis. ∗ Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University and Consultant to Private Industries, Universities and Government Agencies, Galena, Illinois, USA.