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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Immunity and Disease Prevention Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #314640
Title: Red palm oil-supplemented and biofortified gari on the carotenoid and retinyl palmitate concentrations of triacylglycerol-rich plasma of women

Author
item ZHU, CHENGHAO - University Of California
item CAI, YIMENG - University Of California
item Gertz, Erik
item Lafrano, Michael
item BURNETT, DUSTIN - University Of California
item Burri, Betty

Submitted to: Nutrition Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/6/2015
Publication Date: 8/10/2015
Citation: Zhu, C.H., Cai, Y., Gertz, E.R., Lafrano, M.R., Burnett, D., Burri, B.J. 2015. Red palm oil-supplemented and biofortified gari on the carotenoid and retinyl palmitate concentrations of triacylglycerol-rich plasma of women. Nutrition Research. DOI:10.1016/j.nutres.2015.08.003.

Interpretive Summary: Boiled biofortified cassava increased vitamin A concentrations in healthy adult women. This means that biofortified cassava might help prevent vitamin A deficiency in Africa, where cassava is a staple food. However, most Africans do not eat boiled cassava. Instead, they eat gari, a fermented cassava food. We compared the effectiveness of biofortified cassava gari to cassava gari prepared with red palm oil. 8 women were fed biofortified cassava and red-palm oil fortified cassava at different times. Both treatments increased beta-carotene and vitamin A. However, the red palm oil fortified gari was more effective than the current variety of biofortified cassava gari we tested.

Technical Abstract: Boiled biofortified cassava containing ß-carotene (BC) can increase retinyl palmitate (RP) in triacylglycerol (TAG)-rich plasma. Thus, it might alleviate vitamin A deficiency. Cassava requires extensive preparation to decrease its level of cyanogenic glucosides, which can be fatal. Garification is a popular method of preparing cassava that removes cyanogen glucosides. Our objective was to compare the effectiveness of biofortified gari (BFG) to gari prepared with red palm oil (RPO). The study was a randomized cross-over trial in 8 American women. Three gari preparations separated by 2 wk washout periods were consumed. Treatments (containing 160 g gari) were: BFG (containing 1 mg BC); RPO-fortified gari (ROG; 1 mg BC), and unfortified gari with a 0.3 mg RP reference dose (WG+RP). Blood was collected six times from -0.5 – 9.5 h post-ingestion. TAG-rich plasma was separated by ultracentrifugation and analyzed by HPLC with diode array detection. Area under the curve (AUC) for BC, AC, and RP increased after the ROG and BFG meals were fed (P < 0.05), but the RP increase induced by the ROG treatment was greater than that induced by the BFG treatment (p<0.05). Vitamin A conversion was 2.4 ± 0.3 and 4.2 ± 1.5 µg pro-vitamin A carotenoid : 1 µg retinol (mean ± SEM) for ROG and BFG, respectively. These results show that both ROG and BFG increased BC, AC and RP in TAG-rich plasma concentrations in healthy well-nourished adult women, although currently RPO-fortification was the better intervention for preventing vitamin A deficiency.