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Some nutritional aspects of cod liver oil. I.—its essential fatty acid and hypocholesterolaemic activity
Author(s) -
Reed S. A.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740150610
Subject(s) - degree of unsaturation , fatty acid , iodine value , food science , chemistry , cod liver oil , linoleic acid , essential fatty acid , biochemistry , organic chemistry
The effect of cod liver oil on rats fed on an unsaturated fatty acid‐deficient diet has been studied. Many of the symptoms of such rats, such as loss of weight, sterility and elevated triene to tetraene fatty acid ratio of the depot fat, are cured by cod liver oil despite the fact that its fatty acids are primarily of the linolenic type. Certain other conditions of the rats, such as dermal symptoms and viability of the young, were not cured by the level of cod liver oil being fed. The rats used in these experiments were also hypercholesterolaemic and the effectiveness of cod liver oil, its ethyl ester and a fraction with high iodine value from it were compared with maize oil in their effectiveness in reducing their serum cholesterol levels. The effectiveness of these oils appeared to be approximately proportional to the number of methylene‐interrupted double bonds of diene unsaturation and upwards present in the fatty acids irrespective of whether the fatty acids were of the linoleic or linolenic types.