Your journal is really informative as far as health and medicine are concerned. We would like to comment on the article on coconut oil (Tough Nut to Crack, February 2004, page 16). The article quotes Dr. Nemencio Nicodemus Jr. as saying "the kind that is sold is manufactured from desiccated coconut, which is why it is yellowish."
While it may be true that some businessmen use desiccated coconut to produce coconut oil, this is normally done to produce water-white coconut oil or the so-called virgin coconut oil. Coconut oil (the yellowish one) is commercially extracted from copra by crushing using mechanical expellers. It is then refined, bleached, and deodorized.
The potential uses of coconut in the field of health, nutrition, and medicines have attracted scientific attention in recent years. Aside from being touted as a natural health food for mostly anecdotal reasons, coconut has been found to have properties considered indicative of a host of benefits that could improve human health.
Of the wide variety of coconut products, coconut oil has been the primary focus of research efforts. This is mostly because coconut oil is premium oil, being the largest source of lauric acid and an important source of other oleo chemicals for clinical and industrial applications.
The Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation (PCDRF) is a nonstock and nonprofit organization and accredited by the Department of Science and Technology as a science organization. Since our establishment in 1975, we have completed various research projects in coconut agricultural production, food and nonfood product development, its socio-economics, and its medical and nutritional applications.
PCDRF continues to work to benefit the health of our countrymen.
From 1988 to 1991 coconut oil was tested and proven effective in preventing cancer mutation in an intensive animal study conducted at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. This project made use of coconut oil feeding in controlling the effects of six chemicals known to induce cancer and other abnormalities. The interesting progress this study has contributed to the years and millions of dollars of cancer research makes it worthy of further investigation.
When the health claims against the tropical oils came up in the United States, the Philippine coconut industry protested. The United Coconut Association of the Philippines and PCDRF launched a campaign in the medical, legal, and public opinion fronts in defense of coconut oil.
In August 1989, PCDRF forged a tie-up with the New England Deaconess Hospital, a Harvard affiliate, to investigate the use of coconut oil in human nutrition and diet and its effects on cholesterol levels. The study yielded positive results. It showed that coconut oil is one of the few vegetable oils that can increase the levels of high-density lipoproteins or good cholesterol in the blood, making a person less prone to cardiovascular disease or heart attack.
In 1999 PCDRF, in collaboration with San Lazaro Hospital and United Laboratories, conducted a six-month clinical safety and efficacy trial of monolaurin in persons with HIV. Our preliminary analysis strongly suggests the possible antiretroviral property of coconut oil or monolaurin in. The encouraging results, however, warrant further clinical trials involving more subjects.
We are inviting medical practitioners to conduct more studies on the health benefits of coconut oil. These would certainly help in defining clearly the role of coconut oil in human health and nutrition, and in fighting certain diseases. PCDRF is willing to collaborate and coordinate with interested researchers.
An all-out effort to conduct scientific studies and develop technologies and products to optimize the health benefits from coconut must also be supported by government. The collaboration of various concerned sectors would be critical to the success of these undertakings.
Manuel V. del Rosario
Vice chair and treasurer
Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation
Ortigas Center, Pasig City
