Chronic LD50 of Coconut Oil

Abstract

Coconut oil is edible and it is obtained from the kernel of mature coconuts of the coconut palm. It has been used in skin and hair care products as well as for the relief of stress, weight loss, cholesterol level maintenance, cardiovascular diseases and for maintenance of normal body system. Studied on the LD 50 of coconut oil was done using seven Wistar rats weighing 245±2g. The rats were grouped into 3, of 4 and 2 in each group. The 7 th rat served as the control. All rats had normal feeds and water regularly throughout the experiment. They had oral ingestion of coconut oil twice daily with an increase of 0.5ml coconut oil daily until death of last rats on the
18 th day (1.0ml/kg to 10.0ml/kg). In Group 1, two rats died at 9.5ml/kg, while the other 2 rats died at 10.0ml/kg on the 18 th and 19 th days respectively. This process was repeated with 2 rats to confirm the process, all two rats died at 9.5ml/kg. The weights of the rats and organs were not significantly different (p>0.05) from the control rat throughout the experiment. Chronic LD 50
was found to be 9.2ml/kg b.w.