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The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of chronic consumption of fresh palm oil (FPO) and thermoxidized palm oil (TPO) diet on gastric acid secretion, pepsin secretions, gastric mucus output and gastric cytoprotection.

Adult Wistar rats were randomly assigned into three groups, i.e. control, FPO and TPO groups (n = 10 in each). The control group was fed with normal rat chow only, the FPO group was fed on diet containing 15 per cent v/w FPO and the TPO group was fed with diet containing v/w of thermally oxidized palm oil. All animals had free access to feed and water, and the feeding lasted for 14 weeks. At the end of the feeding period, gastric acid secretion, pepsin secretion, mucus output and gastric ulceration were measured following standard methods.

There was increase in histamine-stimulated gastric acid output in the TPO diet-fed group (p < 0.01) compared with the control and FPO diet-fed groups. No significant change in the mucus output was observed across all the experimental groups; whereas, pepsin secretion was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the TPO diet-fed group (0.46 ± 0.27) compared with the control (0.14 ± 0.05) and FPO diet-fed groups (0.25 ± 0.01). Ulcer scores in the TPO diet-fed group (15.5 ± 0.33) was significantly higher (p < 0.01) compared with the control (10.0 ± 0.05) and FPO diet-fed (5.0 ± 0.04) groups.

Chronic consumption of TPO increased gastric acid and pepsin secretion (gastric-aggressive factors) without a change in the mucus output. This can bring about gastric ulceration; therefore, the liberal use of TPO should be discouraged.