Chatigre Kouamé Olivier¹, Méité Alassane², Fofana Ibrahim^3,, Kati-Coulibaly Séraphin²

Refined palm oil (palm olein) is widely used in the diet of Côte d’Ivoire. However, populations traditionally consume oilseeds from spontaneous trees, including the aiélé. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of ingestion (for 4 weeks) of 15% crude aiélé (unrefined), refined palm and combined oil diets on normal growing rats. The physicochemical properties of the oils or oil mixtures were determined by standard methods and their fatty acid profile by gas chromatography after methylation of the fatty acids by Boron trifluoride-methanol (BF3 methanol). In addition, Diets containing 15% of fat were administered to growing Wistar strain rats for 28 days. The results indicated that the SFA, MUFA and PUFA levels of the crude oil of the aiélé are respectively 45; 34; 21% to 44; 44; 12 % and 13; 29; 58 % for refined oils of palm and corn. Three main fatty acids have been identified: palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids. Nutritional parameters assessed revealed that the crude oil of the aiélé diet is better appreciated than the refined palm oil diet despite the relatively high acid and peroxide values of the oil of the aiélé. However, the digestibility of its dry matter and lipids are relatively low compared to those of refined palm and corn oil diets. However, the combination of crude oil of aiélé with refined oil of palm tends to improve the nutritional performance of the lipids of the diet. Furthermore, no significant differences were reported between blood lipid parameters of the aiélé and refined palm oil diets.

Aiélé, palm, oils, physicochemical properties, fatty acid composition, digestibility, blood lipids, growth, rat