Consumption of edible oil blended with flax, coconut, sunflower, and olive oil can significantly improve the negative health consequences of high-fat/high-cholesterol diet in Sprague Dawley rats.

Background: Increasing cardiac, hepatic, and metabolic diseases have raised the need to modify our contemporary lifestyles toward balancing and diversifying the nutrients in our daily diet. Objective: Dietary fats should be modified to healthier versions by blending different vegetable oils. Therefore, in this study, an oil blend with health-protective and promoting fatty acid combinations was investigated to bring down the progression of cardiac and other metabolic diseases. Methodology: A bio-efficacy trial was performed to investigate the therapeutic potential of an oil blend in 30 hyperlipidemic rats. Five rats were allocated to each group (coconut, flaxseed, olive, sunflower, and blended oil) for 42 days and were compared with the initial values of hyperlipidemic rats. Methodological investigations were performed for the body weight, naso-anal length, various obesity indices, visceral fat accumulation, blood and serum, cardiovascular risk indices, and echocardiograph. Results: Blended oil consumption indicated significant reductions of 53.12% in body fat content (3.98 ± 0.96), 6.82% in Lee index (289.60 ± 8.27), 16.84% in BMI (0.15 ± 0.003), 57.37% in total cholesterol (52.00 ± 9.03), 68.57% in triacylglycerides (99.00 ± 9.19), 61.16% in atherogenic index (0.88 ± 0.12), and 58.72% in coronary risk index (2.88 ± 0.12), when compared with the initial values. Conclusion: Blended oil consumption has significantly reduced various obesity indices, improved lipid profile, and provided significant protection against cardiovascular risk indices. Moreover, the results of blended oil indicated significant health protective ameliorations in electrocardiographs. Its regular consumption could help to reduce the onset of obesity and metabolic diseases.

Dynamics of biochemical attributes and enzymatic activities of pasteurized and bio-preserved tender coconut water during storage.

The potential of bio-preservatives, namely, nisin, natamycin, and polylysine, as viable alternatives to chemical preservatives for storage of tender coconut water (TCW) during refrigerated storage (5 ± 2°C) was explored. Bio-preservative treatments were carried out after optimized heat treatment (85°C for 5 min) of TCW to establish its storage characteristics. Various concentrations (up to 125 ppm) of bio-preservatives were used for the preservation, and quality parameters of resultant TCW were assessed based on physicochemical characteristics and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) guidelines and statistical analysis applied. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc test revealed that pH and overall acceptability (OA) are the major governing factors that determine spoilage of TCW (p < 0.05). Overall, the polylysine combination was found to be most effective in ensuring quality retention of TCW. It was concluded that pasteurized TCW shelf life could be extended up to 20 days using bio-preservatives.