A 13-week feeding study in the rat with shea oleine and hardened shea oleine

Shea oleine is an oil fraction derived from the nut of the tree, Butyrospermum parkii, which grows in central and western Africa. There are several uses of shea oleine, including its use as a cooking oil and, after hardening, in margarine and toffee fat. As part of a series of studies, a 13-week rat feeding study was conducted in which groups of Colworth-Wistar rats (15 male and 15 female) were fed 27.5% total fat semipurified diets containing 20% (w/w) shea oleine (SU) or hardened shea oleine (SH). Equivalent groups of rats were fed either 20% (w/w) palm oil (PU), soyabean oil (BU), or the hardened (hydrogenated) equivalents (PH and BH, respectively). Assessments of body weight, food and water intake, clinical pathology, organ weights, and macroscopic histopathology were carried out. Results showed that shea oleine diets produced similar biological effects to palm oil and and soyabean oil diets. A slightly reduced body weight gain was noted in rats fed either of the shea oleine diets in comparison with palm oil and soyabean oil. The process of hardening had no significant impact on the normal growth in rats fed shea oleine, although minor differences compared with unhardened diets comprised some small changes in clinical chemistry parameters, raised liver weight, and less liver lipid. In addition, raised alkaline phosphatase and an increase in food intake were noted in rats fed SH. All diets were well tolerated in the growing rat and none of the findings in the study were considered to be adverse.