Red palm oil as a source of/~-carotene for combating vitamin A deficiency

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 #g of fl-carotene and the second group was the control group which was given 600 #g 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#mol/1 to 1.89+0.23 ~tmol/l in the Red Palmoil (RPO) group and from 0.74±0.09 to 1.94 ± 0.21/~mol/1 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 //-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.