Efek Pemberian Gula Kelapa yang Diperkaya Minyak Sawit Merah terhadap Peningkatan Berat Badan dan Kadar Retinol Serum Tikus Defisien Vitamin A (Effect Of The Feeding Of Brown Sugar Enriched With Red Palm Oil On Body Weight Gain And Serum Retinol Levels

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is an important cause of blindness and premature death. Vitamin A also plays an important role on growth and immune function. Red palm oil is the richest naturally occurring source of β-carotene, a carotenoid that the human body can convert into USAble vitamin A (retinol). This research was to evaluate the effect of feeding red palm oil enriched brown sugar on improving body weight and serum retinol level of vitamin A depletion Sprague-Dawley rats. Twenty four of six weeks old-male Sprague Dawley rats were used. After 2 weeks of adaptation period, rats were given vitamin A deficient diet (modified AIN-93M) for 10 weeks, and then divided into 3 groups and received for 2 weeks the different treatment as repletion period: 1) RPO group which received red palm oil enriched brown sugar (1.5 mL/d), 2) CPO group which received crude palm oil enriched brown sugar (1.5 mL/d) and 3) and RE group which received retinyl palmitate (0.6 mL/d) . Each treatment contains approximately 40 µg beta carotene/day. Intervention by feeding brown sugar enriched with RPO and CPO for 2 weeks can increase the body weight of rats by 3.54 percent and 5.23 percent, respectively, which is markedly better than the group that was given retynil palmitat (9.38%) (p<0.05). However, an increase in serum retinol concentrations in all group showed no significant differences (p>0.05). Consumption of brown sugar enriched with RPO or CPO enhances body weight and serum retinol concentration of vitamin A deficient rats