RED PALM OIL AS A SOURCE OF BETA-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 sup plement of 'Suji halwa', a sweet snack made with semolina and red palm oil, supplying 2400 pg of beta-carotene and the second group was the control group which was given 600 mu g of oral vitamin A palmitate, fo r 60 days. Vitamin A status before and after supplementation was asses sed by the Modified Relative Dose Response Assay (MRDR). Results indic ated that serum vitamin A levels increased from the basal level of 0.8 6+/-0.13 pmol/l to 1.89+/-0.23 mu mol/l in the Red Palmoil (RPO) group and from 0.74+/-0.09 to 1.94+/-0.21 mu mol/l in the control vitamin A group. Dehydroretinol/Retinol (DR/R) ratio decreased from 0.073+/-0.0 25 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 vitami n A after feeding RPO snacks, comparable to synthetic vitamin A. This study indicates that RPO is an efficient source of p-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 deficien cy in target population.