Metabolism Capacity of Medium Chain Fatty Acids from Virgin Coconut Oil: an In Vivo Study.

In this study, the types of fatty acids in the liver tissue of mice were evaluated under different diets. As a result, mice fed with a high-fat diet-including basic pellets mixed with eight percent (w/w) peanut oil, two percent (w/w) cholesterol, and 0.1% (w/w) calcium carbonate-showed the highest cholesterol content (1.5 ± 0.08 mg/100 g) compared to normal mice (0.23 ± 0.04 mg/100 g). Whereas the cholesterol content in the liver tissue of mice fed with basic pellets and orally treated with a free fatty acid fraction (FFA1) from virgin coconut oil, which was made up of the C8:0-C12:0 fraction (97.3%) was prepared did not differ from the control group (using only standard pellets). This demonstrated that MCFA (C8:0-C12:0) was directly consumed and converted to energy without accumulating cholesterol. The gas chromatography analysis result showed that the fat droplets in the liver tissues of treated mice were mostly saturated long-chain fatty acids (LCFA), in which C16:0 and C18:0 carbon chain length fatty acids were predominant in the liver tissue. The results confirmed the hypothesis that MCFA is preferentially absorbed and converted to energy while saturated LCFA has a tendency to induce fat accumulation in the metabolic pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]