Virgin Coconut Oil – An amazing therapy against Diabetes mellitus and Hepatotoxicity

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders which refers to elevated blood sugar levels “hyperglycemia” for prolonged period because of lack in insulin secretion, insulin action or both¹. Symptoms of high blood sugar are: frequent urination, increased thirst as well as increased hunger. The World Health Organization reported that about 422 million adults are suffering from diabetes mellitus all over the world².

In addition, this disease is associated with other disorders as well including cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure and liver ailments. Accordingly, it is reported that about 20,000 patients die each year that are attributed to hepatic disorder, thus listing it as one of the primary health issues globally particularly in developing countries³.

Currently, experts are trying to hunt natural products for the treatment of several disorders because these products are cost effective, readily available and environment friendly as well. In this regard, value of medicinal plants is increasing day by day.

Accordingly, Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is a potential agent that is a derivative of coconut. The role of this oil on human health is generating scientific interest in scientists and this issue is continuously drawing attention particularly in hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia as well as liver diseases.

Therefore, scientists conducted a new research in order to investigate the therapeutic potentials of virgin coconut oil in ameliorating diabetes mellitus and hepatotoxicity in wistar rats⁴.

For this purpose, “Diabetes mellitus” was induced in rats by means of alloxan monohydrate dissolved in normal saline; while 50% CCl₄ dissolved in olive oil was adopted as a measure to induce liver injury in rats⁴.

Conclusively, bioactive components present in virgin coconut oil gave satisfactory results as they were found to enhance hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia as well as liver toxicity in rats thus disregarding the facts that VCO cannot be employed as a remediation measure. However, detailed investigation is needed on virgin coconut oil that can reveal its potential as a source of phyto-medicine which can be presented as a recommendation for clinical trials in future.

Key words: hyperglycemia, liver toxicity, phyto-medicine, virgin coconut oil, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia

References:

1. Scheen, J.A., 1997. Drug treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in the 1990s. Drugs, 54: 355-368.
2. WHO., 2016. Global Report on Diabetes. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, ISBN: 9789241565257, Pages: 86.
3. Ozougwu, J.C., 2011. Herbal options for the management of drug induced liver damage: A Review. Pharmacologyonline, 3: 1481-1490.
4. A.O. Okpiabhele, E.A.C. Nw and O.D. Abu, 2018. Therapeutic Potential of Virgin Coconut Oil in Ameliorating Diabetes Mellitus and Hepatotoxicity Using Rattus Norvegicus as Case Study. Asian J. Biol. Sci., 11: 138-144.